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The girls cams out upon the point where the lighthouse 
('S^e Page 175) 


BILLIE BRADLEY ON 
LIGHTHOUSE ISLAND 

OR 

THE MYSTERY OF THE WRECK 


BY 

JANET D. WHEELER 

AUTHOR OF “BILLIE BRADLEY AND HER INHERITANCB,*^ 
“BILLIE BRADLEY AT THREE TOWERS HALL,” ETC. 


ILLUSTRATED 


NEW YORK 

GEORGE SULLY y COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 


BILLIE BRADLEY SERIES 
BY JANET D. WHEELER 
i2mo. Cloth. Illustrated. 

Billie Bradley and Her Inheritance 

Or The Queer Homestead at Cherry Corners 

Billie Bradley at Three Towers Hall 
Or Leading a Needed Rebellion 

Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 
Or The Mystery of the Wreck 


GEORGE SULLY & COMPANY 

Publishers New York 



Copyright, 1920, by 

GEORGE SULLY & COMPANY 


Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 


©CI.A57191,3 


AUG -2 1920 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I Lost i 

II The Hut in the Woods .... 9 

III Ferns and Mystery 17 

IV At THE School Again 25 

V Much Ado About Nothing • • . 33 

VI Found — One Album 41 

VII Strange Actions 49 

VIII An Invitation 57 

IX Amanda Again 63 

X Two OF A Kind 71 

XI At Home 79 

XII Preparing for the Trip .... 86 

XIII Pleasure Draws Near .... 95 

XIV The Light ON Lighthouse Island . . 102 

XV Connie’s Mother no 

XVI Clam Chowder AND Salt Air . . . 118 

XVII Fun and Nonsense 125 

XVIII Uncle Tom 133 

XIX Paul’s Motor Boat 141 

iii 


iv Contents 

CHAPTER page: 

XX Out of the Fog 150 

XXI The Boys Are Interested . . . . - 15S 
XXII The Fury of the Storm . . . . 166 

XXIII Fighting for Life 174 

XXIV Three Small Survivors . . >' 

XXV The Mystery Sot.vwo igr 


BILLIE BRADLEY ON 
LIGHTHOUSE ISLAND 


CHAPTER I 

LOST 

Splash ? went a big drop just on the exact tip of 
Laura Jordon’s pretty, rather upturned nose. She 
put her hand to the drop to be sure she had not been 
mistaken, then turned in dismay to her companions. 

‘‘Girls,” she cried, “it’s raining !” 

If she had said the world was coming to an end 
her companions could not have looked more startled. 
Then Billie Bradley cocked an eye at what she could 
see of the sky through the ti^es and held out one 
hand experimentally. 

“You’re crazy,” she announced, turning an ac- 
cusing eye upon Laura. “It’s no more raining than 
you are. And, anyway, haven’t we troubles enough 
without your going and making up a new one ?” 

“M-making up !” Laura stuttered in her indigna- 
tion. “If you don’t believe me, just look at my 
nose.” 


I 


2 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

“I don’t see what your nose has to do with it,” 
Billie began scornfully, but the third of the trio, 
Violet Farrington, by name, interrupted. 

‘‘Laura’s right,” she cried. “I just felt a great 
big drop myself. Now, what ever are we going to 
do?” Vi dropped down in a pathetic little heap on 
a convenient rock, looking up at her chums wist- 
fully. 

Violet Farrington was always a little wistful 
when in trouble, like a small girl who can never un- 
derstand why she is being punished. But just now 
this wistfulness irritated Billie Bradley, who was 
very much given to quick action herself, and she 
turned upon Vi rather snappily. 

“Well, you needn’t just sit there like a ninny,” 
she cried. “Get up and help us think what we can 
do to get out of this mess.” 

“Mess is right,” said Laura Jordon gloomily. 

And it must be admitted that the girls were in 
rather a trying situation. Their botany teacher at 
Three Towers Hall, where they were students, had 
sent them into the woods to gather some rare ferns 
which they were to use in the botany class the next 
day. 

That was all very well; for if there was anything 
the girls loved it was a trip into the woods. They 
had started off in hilarious spirits; and then — the 
impossible thing had happened. 

They had gathered the ferns, turned to go back 


Lost 


3 


to Three Towers, and found, to their absolute dis- 
may, that they did not know which way to go. There 
was no getting over the fact. They were absolutely 
and completely lost ! 

For almost an hour now they had been wandering 
around and around, getting deeper into the woods 
every minute, until they had finally begun to feel 
really frightened. Suppose they couldn’t find Three 
Towers before dusk? Suppose they should be 
forced to stay in the woods all night? These and a 
hundred other thoughts had chased themselves 
through their heads, but they had said nothing of 
their fears to each other. The girls were thor- 
oughly “game.” 

But now had come this new complication. It had 
begun to rain. Hopelessly lost in the woods and a 
storm coming on ! It was a situation to try the pa- 
tience of a saint. And the girls were not saints. 
They were just happy, fun-loving, lovable speci- 
mens of young American girlhood who could upon 
occasion show rather alarming flashes of temper. 

“I’m not a ninny,” Vi protested hotly; but Billie 
was already started on a different train of thought. 
She caught Vi’s wrist in hers and her eyes were big 
and round as she looked from her to Laura. 

“Suppose,” she said in a whisper, “we should 
meet the Codfish I” 

Vi shivered nervously, but it was Laura’s turn 
to be cross. 


4 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

‘‘Don’t be silly/’ she said. “Don’t you know that 
the Codfish is safe in jail, and has been there for a 
long time? Now who’s making up something to 
worry about, I’d like to know.’’ 

“But thieves do break out of jail,’’ Billie insisted. 
“And the Codfish is just the kind who would do it.” 

“Goodness, Billie, what an idea !” said Vi breath- 
lessly. “I never even thought about his escaping. 
And I suppose,” she added, beginning to feel de- 
liciously goose-fleshy, “that we’d be the very first 
ones he’d go for. Revenge, you know — that’s what 
they are always after in the stories.” 

“I hate to interrupt you,” Laura broke in as sar- 
castically as she could. “But if you two want to 
stand there all day talking about the Codfish and 
revenge, you can, but I’m going to find some way 
out of this place. Goodness, I felt another drop. 
And there’s another!” 

“Well, you needn’t count them,” Billie remarked 
briskly, bringing an hysterical giggle from Vi. 
“Come on, there must be a path of some kind around 
here.” 

“I suppose there is, but if we can’t find it, it 
won’t do us much good,” said Laura, looking about 
her helplessly. 

“Well, we certainly won’t find it by standing 
still,” snapped Billie. “Come on. I feel it in my 
bones that Three Towers is somewhere off in this 


Lost 


5 

direction." And she led the way into the woods, 
the girls following dispiritedly. 

And while the three chums '^aJ^^s^rching for the 
path, the opportunity will be taken to recount to new 
readers some of the adventures and queer experi- 
ences the girls had had up to the present time. 

In the first book of this series, entitled, “Billie 
Bradley and Her Inheritance," Billie had been left 
an old homestead at Cherry Corners in the upper 
part of New York State. The strange legacy had 
come to Billie from an eccentric aunt, Beatrice Pow- 
erson, for whom Billie had been named. For Bil- 
lie^s real name was not Billie at all, but Beatrice. 

It will be remembered that the girls had decided 
to spend their vacation there, and that the boys, 
Billie’s brother Chetwood, Laura’s brother Teddy, 
and another boy, Ferd Stowing, had joined them 
there and that queer and exciting adventures had 
followed. 

The most wonderful thing of all had been the 
finding of the shabby old trunk in the attic whose 
contents of rare old coins and postage stamps had 
brought Billie in nearly fivqjhousand dollars in cash. 
The money had enabled Billie to replace a statue 
which she had accidentally broken a little while be- 
fore and had also given her the chance to go to 
Three Towers Hall, a good boarding school, and 
Chet the opportunity to go to the Boxton Military 


6 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

Academy, which was only a little over a mile from 
Three Towers Hall. 

The good times the girls had at school — and 
some bad times, too — have been told of in the sec- 
ond book of the series, called, “Billie Bradley at 
Three Towers Hall.’’ 

In North Bend, where the girls had always lived, 
there lived also two other girls, Amanda Peabody 
and Eliza Dilks. These girls were sneaks and tat- 
tletales of the worst order and were thoroughly dis- 
liked by all the girls and boys with whom they had 
come in contact. 

When the chums had heard that Amanda was to 
accompany them to Three Towers they were abso- 
lutely dismayed, for they expected that she would 
spoil all the fun. Amanda had done her best to 
live up to the expectations of the girls, but try as she 
would, she had not been able to spoil entirely the 
fun. And this very failure had, of course, made 
her and her chum, Eliza Dilks, furious. 

Both Three Towers Hall and Boxton Military 
Academy had been built on the banks of the beauti- 
ful Lake Molata, and the girls and boys had spent 
many happy hours rowing upon the lake in the 
fall and skating upon it in the winter. 

But the most amazing thing that had happened 
to them at Three Towers had been the capture of 
the man the girls called “The Codfish.” This rascal 
had attempted to steal Billie’s precious trunk in the 


Lost 


7 


beginning, but Billie and the boys had given chase 
in an automobile and had succeeded in recovering 
the trunk. They had also succeeded in getting a 
good look at the man, whose hair was red, eyes little 
and close together, mouth wide and loose-lipped. 
It was this last feature that had given the thief his 
name with the boys and girls. For the mouth cer- 
tainly resembled that of a codfish. 

Later the ^'Codfish’’ had turned up again near 
Three Towers Hall, had robbed one of the teachers 
of her purse when she was returning from town, 
and had later succeeded in making off with a great 
many valuables from Boxton Military Academy. 

The girls never forgot how, with the aid of the 
boys, they had captured the Codfish and turned him 
over to the police. Though, as Laura said, the thief 
had been in jail for some time, the chums had never 
stopped thinking and wondering about him. But 
never before had the possibility of his escaping been 
thought of. 

But now, as they made their way through the 
forest that was growing darker and darker, they 
could not shake off the thought of him. 

They glanced often and uneasily into the shadowy 
woodland and drew closer together as if for pro- 
tection. The rain was beginning to come a little 
faster now, and their clothes felt damp. Even Bil- 
lie’s courage was beginning to fail. 




8 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

Suddenly Laura stopped stock still and looked at 
them impatiently. 

“There’s not a bit of use our going on like this/' 
she said. “For all we know we may be getting 
farther away from the path every minute." 

“And my feet hurt," added Vi pathetically. 

Suddenly Billie called to them. She had gone on 
a little ahead and, peering through the dusk, had 
seen the outline of something dark, a black smudge 
against the gray of the woods. 

“Girls, come here quick!" she cried, and half- 
fearing, half-hoping, they knew not what, the others 
ran to her. 


CHAPTER II 


THE HUT IN THE WOODS 

‘‘What is it?” Laura cried. 

For answer Billie pointed through the gloom. 

“There ! See it ?” she cried excitedly. “It’s some 
sort of little house, I guess — a hut or something.” 

“A house !” cried Laura joyfully. “Glory be, let’s 
go! What’s the matter?” she asked, as the other 
girls hung back. 

“Better not be in too much of a hurry,” Billie 
cautioned her. “The place looks as if it were 
empty; but you never can tell.” 

“Well, there’s something I can tell,” Laura re- 
torted impatiently. “And that is, that I’m getting 
soaking wet.” She started on again, but Billie 
called to her to stop. 

“Don’t be crazy, Laura,” she whispered. “We’re 
all alone in the woods, and it’s almost night. How 
do we know who may be in that shack?” 

“Oh, Billie, suppose it were the Codfish!” whis- 
pered Vi, and Laura looked disgusted. 

“It isn’t apt to be the Codfish,” returned Billie. 
“But whoever it is, I think we’d better be careful. 


9 


lo Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

We’ll go up to it softly and look about a bit. Please 
don’t any one speak until we’re sure it’s all right.” 

The girls were used to obeying Billie, even im- 
pulsive Laura, so now they followed softly at her 
heels, stepping over twigs so as to make no noise. 

“Goodness ! anybody would think we were thieves 
ourselves,” Laura giggled hysterically, and Billie 
looked back at her warningly. 

It was a strange thing and strangely made, this 
remote little shelter in the woods. It probably had 
some sort of framework of wood inside, but all 
the girls could see from the outside was a rude 
structure entirely covered by moss and interwoven 
twigs. In fact, unless one looked closely, one might 
think that the little hut was no hut at all, but part 
of the foliage itself. 

The girls could find no windows, but as they 
moved cautiously around the hut Billie came upon 
a small door. The latter was hardly more than four 
feet high, and the girls would have to stoop con- 
siderably to get through it. 

“For goodness sake, open it, Billie,” Laura whis- 
pered close in her ear. “It’s beginning to pour 
pitchforks and I’m getting soaking wet. I don’t 
care if a hyena lives in there. I’m going in too.” 

Billie wanted to laugh, but she was too wet and 
nervous. So she opened the little door cautiously 
and peered inside. 

For a minute she could not tell whether the hut 


The Hut in the Woods 


II 


was empty or not, for it was very very dark. But 
as her eyes became accustomed to the darkness she 
felt sure that the place was empty. 

‘^Come on,” she called over her shoulder to the 
girls, her voice still cautiously lowered. ‘"I can't 
see very well, but I guess there's nobody at home.'' 

The girls had to stoop almost double to enter the 
tiny door, but once inside they were surprised to 
find that they could stand upright. 

They were in almost entire darkness, the only 
patch of light coming from the little door that Vi 
had left open. Suddenly they began to feel panicky 
again. 

“If we could only get a light,'' whispered Vi. 

“Goodness, listen to the child,'' said Laura scorn- 
fully. “She wants all the comforts of home — ouch !” 
Her toe had come in contact with something hard. 

“What’s the matter?” cried Billie startled. 

“Matter enough,” moaned Laura. “I've broken 
my toe !” 

“Oh well, if that’s all,” said Billie, but Laura be- 
gan to laugh hysterically. 

“Oh yes, that’s all,” she cried. “I only wish it 
had happened to you, Billie Bradley !” 

If all wishes could be fulfilled as quickly as that 
of Laura's there would be few unsatisfied people 
in the world, for before it was out of her mouth 
Billie uttered a sharp cry of pain, and, lifting a 
smarting ankle in her hand, began to rub it gently. 


12 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

“Did you do it, too?’' cried Laura joyfully, add- 
ing with a good imitation of Billie: “Oh well, if 
that’s all—" 

“Oh for goodness sake, keep still," cried Billie, 
from which it will be seen that Billie was not in 
the best of tempers. “This place must be full of 
stuff. Goodness, why didn’t we think to bring 
matches with us!" 

“Because we went out to get ferns, not to burn 
up the woods," said Laura, with a chuckle. 

“Goodness!" cried Vi suddenly out of the dark- 
ness. “It is — no it isn’t — yes it is " 

“For goodness sake, what’s the matter with her?" 
asked Laura, getting hysterical again. “Has trouble 
turned her head?" 

“No. But something’s turned yours,” Vi’s voice 
came indignantly back at her. “I’ve found some- 
thing, I have. But I’ve a good mind not to tell 
you what it is." 

“Violet, my darling," cried Laura, fondly. “Don’t 
you see me on my knees?" 

“Yes," said Vi, and suddenly there was a flare 
of light in the room that illuminated the faces 
of the girls and made Billie and Laura jump. 

“I see you," said Vi calmly, and stood laughing 
at them while the flickering match in her hand died 
down to a little glimmer and went out. 

“So that’s what you found — matches," cried Bil- 
lie joyfully, while Laura just kept on gaping. “Oh, 


The Hut in the Woods 


13 

Vi, youVe a darling, and I forgive you for scaring 
us almost to death. Come on, light another one so 
we can see where we are.’’ 

Vi obediently lighted another match, a box of 
which she had found quite by accident, and the girls 
looked about them curiously. And as they looked 
their curiosity and wonder grew. Billie was wild 
with impatience when the match in Vi’s hand flick- 
ered and went out again. 

“Here, give them to me,” she cried. “I thought I 
saw something. Look out, don’t spill them, Vi 1” 

“I should say not — they’re all we have,” chimed 
in Laura. 

The match flared up in Billie’s hand, and this 
time it was her turn to make a discovery. The dis- 
covery was a pair of thick white candles, each set 
in a white china dish and pushed to one end of 
a rudely-made table. 

Quick as a flash, Billie put the match to the wick 
of one candle, and then, with a sigh of excitement, 
blew out the match that was almost burning her 
Angers. 

“Girls,” she cried, looking about her eagerly, 
“isn’t this the queerest, funniest little place you ever 
saw? And it’s so complete.” 

Excitedly she crossed the little hut, whose floor 
was nothing but solid, trampled-down earth, and be- 
gan to examine a rude-looking cot that ran along all 
one side of the queer little place. 


14 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

‘‘And here’s a pantry!” exclaimed Vi excitedly. 
“Look, girls, shelves and cans of things and — and — 
everything I” 

The interior of the place was made of rough 
boards, rudely thrown together as if by an amateur. 
Why the person who had made the little cabin had 
not laid boards for his floor, nobody could tell. Per- 
haps he had run short of lumber or perhaps he pre- 
ferred the hard earth floor. 

As Vi had said, in one comer some boards had 
been nailed up to form shelves, and there were sev- 
eral tins of canned goods upon the shelves. Quite 
evidently this must be the queer owner’s pantry. 

Besides this, the cot, the table, and an oddly- 
shaped chair, which had evidently been made from 
an old soap box, made the only furnishings of the 
place. 

“I wonder,” said Billie, looking about her while 
a sort of awe crept into her voice, “what the person 
is like that lives here. He must be very queer, to 
say the least.” 

“Oh,” cried Vi, all her old fears coming back 
again. “Girls, I’d almost forgotten the Codfish. Do 
you suppose — ” 

“No, we don’t,” said Laura shortly, wishing that 
the very mention of the Codfish would not send the 
cold chills all over her. “Goodness, just listen to 
that rain,” she added, shivering. “I guess we’re in 
for a night of it.” 


The Hut in the Woods 15 

‘‘Bpt we can’t stay here all night,” said Billie 
anxiously. 

“Suppose the owner should come back,” added 
Vi, her teeth beginning to chatter. 

“Well, he could only kill us if he did,” said Laura 
gloomily. 

“Besides, there are three of us to his one,” said 
Billie, trying to speak lightly. But Laura spoiled 
the attempt by adding more gloomily than ever : 

“How do we know there’s only one of him?” 

“Well it doesn’t look as if a whole family resided 
here.” 

“That’s so too — but there may be two, at least.” 

Again the girls looked around the queer place. 
They saw a few tools as if somebody had spent 
time in woodworking. There were shavings and 
parts of cut tree branches and strips of bark. 

“I’ll wager he’s a queer stick — whoever he is,” 
was Billie’s comment. 

“And what will he say if he finds us here, prying 
into his private affairs?” came from Laura, with 
something of a shiver. “Oh!” 

All uttered a little cry as a crash of thunder 
reached them. Then the rain seemed to come down 
harder than ever. 

“Just listen to that!” 

“It’s good we are under cover. If we weren’t 
we’d be drowned !” 

The rain came in at one corner of the shelter. 


i6 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

forming a pool on the hard floor. But it did not 
reach the girls, for which they were thankful. 

“I wonder how long it will last,'’ sighed Vi pres- 
ently. 

“Maybe all night,” returned Billie. 

“Oh, do you really think it will last that long?” 
came pleadingly. 

“You know as much about it as I do.” 

“What will they think of our absence at the Hall?” 
broke in Laura. 

“They may send out a searching party ” be- 

gan Billie. 

“Hush,” cried Vi suddenly, and her tone sent 
the gooseflesh all over them again. “I hear some- 
thing. Don’t you think we’d better put something 
against the door?” 


CHAPTER III 


FERNS AND MYSTERY 

*‘Th-there’s nothing to put against the door/’ 
stammered Billie nervously. might put out the 
light though.” She started for the candle, but 
Laura put out a hand and stopped her. 

*‘No,” she said. ‘T’d rather see what’s after us, 
anyway. I hate the dark.” 

The noise that Vi had heard was a slow meas- 
ured step that sounded to the girls’ overwrought 
nerves more like the stealthy creeping of an animal 
than the tread of a man. But whoever or whatever 
it was, it was coming steadily toward the hut — that 
much was certain. 

The girls drew close together for protection and 
watched the little door wide-eyed. 

“It sounds like a bear,” whispered Vi hysterically. 

“Silly,” Laura hissed back at her. “Don’t you 
know that bears don’t grow in this part of the coun- 
try ?” 

“But if it was a man,” Vi argued, “he wouldn’t 
be walking so slowly — not in this kind of weather.” 

“Hush,” commanded Billie. “He’s almost here.” 


17 


i8 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

“If it’s the Codfish — ” Vi was saying desperately, 
when the little door opened and she clapped her 
hand to her mouth, choking back the words. 

Some one was coming through the door, some 
one who had to bend so much that for a startled 
moment the girls were not at all sure but what it 
was an animal, after all, and not a man that they 
had to reckon with. 

Then the visitor stood up and they saw with real 
relief that it was a man after all. As a matter of 
fact, after the first startled minute it was the new- 
comer who seemed frightened and the girls who 
tried to make him feel at home. 

At first sight of the girls the man staggered back- 
ward and came up with a thump against the wall 
of the hut. From there he regarded them with 
eyes that fairly bulged from his head. 

“Hullo!” he muttered, “who are you?” 

The girls stared for a moment, then Laura gig- 
gled. Who could be frightened when a person 
wanted to know who they were? 

He was a queer looking man. He was tall, over 
six feet, and so thin that the skin seemed to be 
drawn over the bones. His shoulders slumped and 
his arms hung loosely, whether from v/eariness or 
discouragement or laziness, the girls found it im- 
possible to tell. 

'But it was his eyes that they noticed even in 
that moment of excitement. They were big, much 


Ferns and Mystery 19 

too big for his thin face, and so dark that they 
seemed deep-sunken. And the expression was 
something that the girls remembered long after- 
ward. It was brooding, haunted, mysterious, with 
a little touch of wildness that frightened the girls. 
Yet his mouth was kind, very kind, and looking at 
it, the girls ceased to be afraid. 

“Who are you ?” the man repeated, and this time 
Billie found her voice. 

“We — we got lost,” she said hesitatingly, speak- 
ing more to the kind mouth of the man than to the 
strange, wild eyes. “It began to rain ” 

“And we found this little place,” Laura caught 
her up eagerly, “and came inside to keep from 
drowning to death.” 

“We hope you don’t mind,” Vi finished, with her 
pleading smile which sometimes won more than all 
Billie’s and Laura’s courage. 

“Mind,” the man repeated vaguely, passing a 
hand across his eyes as if to wake himself up. “Why 
should I mind? It isn’t very often I have com- 
pany.” 

The girls thought he spoke bitterly but the next 
minute he smiled at them. 

“I’m sorry I can’t ask you to sit down,” he said, 
so embarrassed that Billie took pity on him. 

“We don’t want to sit down,” she said, smiling 
at him. “We’re too nervous. Do you suppose the 
rain will ever stop?” 


20 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

The man shook out his clothing and sent a shower 
of spray all about him. He was soaking, drench- 
ing wet, and suddenly, looking at him, Billie had 
a dreadful thought. 

Suppose the man was not quite right in his mind ? 
She had a horror of crazy people. But what sane 
man would build himself a cabin in the woods like 
this in the first place, and then go roaming around 
in the rain without any protection? 

A memory of the slow, measured steps they had 
heard approaching the cabin made her shudder, and 
instinctively she drew back a little and snuggled 
her hand into Laura’s. 

If he was not crazy he was probably a criminal 
of some sort, and neither thought made Billie feel 
very comfortable. Three girls alone in the woods 
with a crazy man or a criminal, with the darkness 
coming on 

Something of what she was thinking occurred 
to Laura and Vi also, and they were beginning to 
look rather pale and scared. 

As for the man — ^he hardly seemed to know what 
to do next. He took off his dripping coat, threw 
it in a heap in one corner and turned back uncer- 
tainly to the girls. 

“No, I don’t think it will stop raining for some 
time,” he said, seeming to realize that Billie had 
asked a question which he had not answered. “And 


Ferns and Mystery 21 

it is getting pretty dark outside. You say you 
are lost?” 

“Yes,” said Billie, wishing she had not told the 
man that part of their troubles ; but then, what else 
could she do? “We were sent into the woods to 
find rare ferns ” 

“Ferns!” broke in the man, his deep eyes light- 
ing up with sudden interest. “Ah, I could show 
you where the rarest and most beautiful ferns in 
the country grow.” 

“You could!” they cried, growing interested in 
their turn and coming closer to him. 

“Are you — a — naturalist?” asked Vi a little un- 
certainly, for she knew just enough about natural- 
ists to be sure she was not one. 

“I guess you might call me that,” said the man. 
“Fve had plenty of time to become one.” 

Again the girls had that strange feeling of mys- 
tery surrounding the man. He walked over to the 
other end of the room and before the girls’ amazed 
eyes took out what they had thought to be part of 
the table. 

It was a very cleverly hidden receptacle, and as 
the girls looked down into it they saw that it was 
half filled with curious little fern baskets. 

“I make them,” the man explained, as they looked 
up at him, puzzled. “And then I sell them in the 
town — sometimes.” 

His mouth tightened bitterly, and he hastily re- 


22 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

turned the baskets to their hiding place. Then he 
turned and faced them abruptly. 

"‘Where do you come from?'' he asked almost 
sharply. 

“We come from Three Towers Hall," answered 
Billie. 

“Three Towers!" The man looked very much 
interested. “Are you — er — teachers there or pu- 
pils?" 

“Teachers! Hardly," and Billie had to smile. 
“We are not old enough for that. We are pupils." 

“Do you like the place?" 

“Very much." 

Again there was a pause, and it must be admitted 
that, for a reason they could not explain, the girls 
felt far from comfortable. Oh, if only they were 
back at the boarding school again! 

“I don't know a great deal about the school," 
said the man slowly. “I suppose there are lots of 
girls there." 

“Over a hundred," said Laura, thinking she should 
say something. 

“And quite a few teachers, too?" 

“Oh, yes." 

Then the man asked quite a lot of other ques- 
tions and the girls answered him as best they could. 
The man continued to look at them so queerly that 
Billie was convinced that there was something wrong 
with him. But what was it? Oh, if only the storm 


Ferns and Mystery 23 

would let up, so they could start back to the school ! 

But even when the rain stopped, how could they 
get back? They were lost, and at night the way 
would be even harder to find than in the daytime. 

No, they were completely in this man’s power. 
If he put them on the right path to Three Towers, 

all well and good. If not But she refused to 

think of that. 

‘‘Tm sure it isn’t raining hard any more,” Laura 
broke in on her thoughts. “Don’t you think we 
could go now?” 

“Even if it hasn’t stopped raining we don’t 
mind,” added Vi eagerly. “We’re wet now, and 
we won’t mind being a little bit wetter.” 

For an answer the man opened the door and 
crawled out into the open. In a moment he was 
back with what seemed to the girls the best news 
they had ever heard. 

“The rain is over,” he said, “but the foliage is 
still dripping. If you really don’t mind getting 
wet ” 

“Oh, we don’t!” they cried, and were starting 
from the door when Vi sudenly remembered some- 
thing. 

“The ferns!” she cried. “Where are they?” 

The girls searched frantically about, knowing 
that their botany teacher would reprimand them if 
they did not bring back the ferns, and finally found 


24 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

them on the floor where somebody had brushed them 
in the excitement. 

Then they crept out through the door, their 
strange acquaintance lingering behind to put out the 
light, and found themselves in the cool darkness of 
the forest. 

“Do you suppose he will really take us back?” 
Vi whispered, close to Billie’s ear. 

“He’d better!” said Billie, clenching her hands 
fiercely against her side. “If he doesn’t I’ll — I’ll— 
murder him !” 

“Goodness, don’t talk of murder,” cried Laura 
hysterically. “It’s an awful word to use in the 
dark, and everything!” 


CHAPTER IV 


AT THE SCHOOL AGAIN 

“There’s only one word worse,” said a gloomy 
voice so close behind them that Vi clapped a hand 
to her mouth to keep from crying out. ‘"And that,” 
the gloomy voice went on, "‘is theft T 

The girls never afterward knew what kept them 
from breaking loose and running away. Probably 
it was because they were paralyzed, with fright. 

While they had thought the man was still in the 
hut he had come softly up behind them and had 
overheard the last, at any rate, of what they had 
said. Billie, as ususal, was the first to recover her- 
self. 

“Will you take us to Three Towers now?” she 
asked in a voice that she hardly recognized as her 
own. “Do you know the way?” 

“Yes,” he answered, adding moodily, as though 
to himself : “Hugo Billings ought to know the way.” 

Billie caught at the name quickly, for she had 
been wondering what this strange person called 
himself. 


25 


26 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

‘‘Hugo Billings !” she said eagerly. “Is that your 
name?” 

The man had started on ahead of them through 
the dark woods, but now he stopped anl looked 
back and Billie could almost feel his eyes boring 
into her. 

“Did I say so?” he asked sharply, then just as 
quickly turned away and started on again. 

“Goodness, I guess he must be a crazy criminal,” 
thought Billie plaintively, as she and her chums fol- 
lowed their leader, stumbling on over rocks and 
roots that sometimes bruised their ankles painfully. 
“I suppose there are some people that are both. 
Anyway, he must be a criminal, or he wouldn’t 
have been so mad about my knowing his name.” 

The rest of that strange journey seemed intermin- 
able. There were times when the girls were sure 
the man who called himself Hugo Billings was not 
taking them toward Three Towers Hall at all. It 
seemed impossible that they could have wandered 
such a long way into the woods. 

Then suddenly their feet struck a hard-beaten 
path and they almost cried aloud with relief. For 
they recognized the path and knew that the open 
road was not far off. Once on the open road, they 
could find their way alone. 

Abruptly the man in front stopped and turned to 
face them. Once more the girls’ hearts misgave 


At the School Again 27 

them. Was he going to make trouble after all? 
Why didn’t he go on? 

And then the man spoke. 

“I won’t go any farther with you,” he said, and 
there was something in his manner of speaking that 
made them see again in imagination the tired slump 
of his shoulders, the wild, haunted look in his eyes. 
‘‘I don’t like the road. But you can find it easily 
from here. Then turn to your right. Three Towers 
is hardly half a mile up the road. Good night.” 

He turned with abruptness and started back the 
way they had come. But impulsively Billie ran to 
him, calling to him to stop. Yet when he did stop 
and turned to look at her she had not the slightest 
idea in the world what she had intended to say — if 
indeed she had really intended to say anything. 

/T — I just wanted to thank you,” she stammered, 
adding, with a swift little feeling of pity for this 
man who seemed so lonely: ‘And if there’s any- 
thing I can ever do to — to — help you ” 

“Who told you I needed help?” cried the man, his 
voice so harsh and threatening that Billie started 
back, half falling over a root. 

“Why — why,” faltered Billie, saying almost the 
first thing that came into her mind. “You looked 
so — so — sad ” 

“Sad,” the man repeated bitterly. “Yes, I have 
enough to make me sad. But help!” he added 
fiercely. “I don’t need help from you or any one.” 


28 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

And without another word he turned and strode 
off into the darkness. 

After that it did not take the girls long to reach 
the road. They felt, someway, as if they must 
have dreamed their adventure, it had all been so 
strange and unreal. And yet they Knew they had 
never been more awake in their lives. 

‘Tlease don’t talk about it now,” begged Vi when 
Laura would have discussed it. ''Let’s wait till 
we get in our dorm with lights and everything. I’m 
just shivering all over.” 

For once the others were willing to do as the 
most timid of the trio wished, and they hurried 
along in silence till they saw, with hearts full of 
thankfulness, the lights of Three Towers Hall shine 
out on the road before them. 

"Look, I see the lights !” 

"So do I !” 

"Thank goodness we haven’t much farther to go.” 

"It’s all of a quarter of a mile, Vi.” 

"Huh! what’s a quarter of a mile after such a 
tramp as we have had?” came from Billie. 

"And after such an experience,” added Laura. 

"We’ll certainly have some story to tell.” 

"I want something to eat first.” 

"Yes, and dry clothes, too.” 

"What a queer hut and what a queer man!” 

"I’ve heard of people being lost before,” said 
Billie, as they ran up the steps that led to the hand- 


29 


At the School Again 

somest door in the world, or at least so they thought 
it at that moment. “But now I know that what 
they said about it wasn’t half bad enough.” 

“But not every one finds a hut and a funny man 
when they get lost,” said Vi. 

“Well, you needn’t be so conceited about it,” said 
Laura, pausing with her hand on the door knob. 
“The girls probably won’t believe us when we tell 
them.” 

But Laura was wrong. The girls did really be- 
lieve the story of Hugo Billings and the hut and 
became tremendously excited about it. At first they 
were all for making up an expedition and going to 
see it — the only drawback being that the chums 
could not have directed them to it if they would. 

And they would not have wished to, anyway. 
They had rather good reason to believe that Hugo 
Billings would not want a lot of curious girls spy- 
ing about his quarters, and, being sorry for him 
and grateful to him for helping them out of their 
fix, they absolutely refused to have anything to do 
with the idea. 

They were greeted with open arms on the night 
of their return. Miss Walters, the much-beloved 
head of Three Towers Hall, said that she had been 
just about to send out a searching party for them. 

They were late for supper, but that only made 
their appetites better, and as they were favorites 
of the cook they were given an extra share of 


30 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

everything and ate ravenously, impatient of the 
questions flung at them by the curious girls. 

‘Thank goodness the Dill Pickles aren’t here,” 
Laura said to Billie between mouthfuls of pork 
chop. “Think of coming home with om appetites 
to the kind of dinners they used to serve us.” 

“Laura! what a horrible thought,” cried Billie, 
her eyes dancing as she helped herself to two more 
biscuits. “That’s treason.” 

For the “Dill Pickles” were two elderly spinsters 
who had been teachers at Three Towers Hall when 
Billie and her chums had first arrived. Their tart- 
ness and strictness and miserliness had made the 
life of the girls in the school uncomfortable for 
some time. 

And then had come the climax. Miss Walters, 
having been called away for a week or two. Miss 
Ada Dill and Miss Cora Dill, disrespectfully 
dubbed by the girls the twin “Dill Pickles,” had 
things in their own hands and proceeded to make 
the life of the girls unbearable. They had taken 
away their liberty, and then had half starved them 
by cutting down on the meals until finally the girls 
had rebelled. 

With Billie in the lead, they had marched out of 
Three Towers Hall one day, bag and baggage, to 
stay in a hotel in the town of Molata until Miss 
Walters should get back. Miss Walters, coming 
home unexpectedly, had met the girls in town, ac- 


31 


At the School Again 

companied them back to Three Towers and, as one 
of the girls slangily described it, “had given the 
Dill Pickles all that was coming to them.” 

In other words, the Misses Dill had been dis- 
charged and the girls had come off victorious. Now 
there were two new teachers in their place who were 
as different from the Dill Pickles as night is from 
day. All the girls loved them, especially a Miss 
Arbuckle who had succeeded Miss Cora Dill in 
presiding over the dining hall. 

So it was to this that Laura had referred when 
she said, “Thank goodness the Dill Pickles are 
gone !” 

After they had eaten all they could possibly con- 
tain, the girls retired to their dormitories, where 
they changed their clothes, still damp from their 
adventure, for comfortable, warm night gowns, and 
held court, all the girls gathering in their dormitory 
to hear of their adventures, for nearly an hour. 

At the end of that time the bell for “lights-out” 
rang, and the chums found to their surprise that for 
once they were not sorry. What with the adven- 
ture itself and the number of questions they had 
answered, they were tired out and longed for the 
comfort of their beds. 

“But do you suppose,” said Connie Danvers as 
she rose to go into her dormitory, which was across 
the hall, “that the man was really a little out of his 
head?” 


32 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

‘‘I think he was more than a little/^ said Laura 
decidedly, as she dipped her face into a bowl of 
cold water. “I think he was just plain crazy.'’ 

Connie Danvers was a very good friend of the 
chums, and one of the most popular girls in Three 
Towers Hall. Just now she looked a little worried. 

“Goodness! first we have the Codfish,” she said, 
“and then you girls go and rake up a crazy man. 
We’ll be having a menagerie next!” 


CHAPTER V 


MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING 

It was the spring of the year, a time when every 
normal boy and girl becomes restless for new scenes, 
new adventures. The girls at Three Towers Hall 
heard the mysterious call and longed through hot 
days of study to respond to it. 

The teachers felt the restlessness in the air and 
strove to keep the girls to their lessons by making 
them more interesting. But it was of no use. The 
girls studied because they had to, not, except in a 
few scattered cases, because they wanted to. 

One of the exceptions to the rule was Caroline 
Brant, a natural student and a serious girl, who had 
set herself the rather hopeless task of watching 
over Billie Bradley and keeping her out of scrapes. 
For Billie, with her love of adventure and excite- 
ment, was forever getting into some sort of scrape. 

But these days it would have taken half a dozen 
Caroline Brants to have kept Billie in the traces. 
Billie was as wild as an unbroken colt, and just as 
impatient of control. And Laura and Vi were al- 
most as bad. 


33 


34 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

There was some excuse for the girls. In the first 
place, the spring term at Three Towers Hall was 
drawing to a close, and at the end of the spring 
term came — freedom. 

But the thing that set their blood racing was the 
thought of what was in store for them after they 
had gained their freedom. Connie Danvers had 
given the girls an invitation to visit during their 
vacation her father’s bungalow on Lighthouse Isl- 
and, a romantic spot off the Maine coast. 

The prospect had appealed to the girls even in 
the dead of winter; but now, with the sweet scent 
of damp earth and flowering shrubs in the air, they 
had all they could do to wait at all. 

The chums had written to their parents about 
spending their vacation on the island, and the latter 
had consented on one condition. And that condi- 
tion was that the girls should make a good record 
for themsdves at Three Towers Hall. And it is 
greatly to be feared that it was only this unreason- 
able — to the girls — condition that kept them at 
their studies at all. 

It was Saturday morning, and Billie, all alone in 
one of the study halls, was finishing her prepara- 
tion for Monday’s classes. She always got rid 
of this task on Saturday morning, so as to have her 
Saturday afternoon and Sunday free. She had 
never succeeded in winning Laura and Vi over to 
her method, so that on their part there was usually 


Much Ado About Nothing 35 

a wild scramble to prepare Monday’s lessons on 
Sunday afternoon. 

As Billie, books in hand and a satisfied feeling in 
her heart, came out of the study room, she very 
nearly ran into Miss Arbuckle. Miss Arbuckle 
seemed in a great hurry about something, and the 
tip of her nose and her eyes were red as though 
she had been crying. 

‘Why, what’s the matter?” asked Billie, for Bil- 
lie was not at all tactful when any one was in 
trouble. Her impulse was to jump in and help, 
whether one really wanted her help or not. But 
everybody that knew Billie forgave her her lack of 
tact and loved her for the desire to help. 

So now Miss Arbuckle, after a moment of hesi- 
tation, motioned Billie into the study room, and, 
crossing over to one of the windows, stood looking 
out, tapping with her fingers on the sill. 

‘‘I’ve lost something, Billie,” she said, without 
looking around. “It may not seem much to you 
or to anybody else. But for me — well. I’d rather 
have lost my right hand.” 

She looked around then, and Billie saw fresh 
moisture in her eyes. 

“What is it?” she asked gently. “Perhaps I — we 
can help you find it.” 

“I wish you could,” said Miss Arbuckle, with a 
little sigh. “But that would be too good to be true. 
It was only an old family album, Billie. But there 


36 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

were pictures in it that I prize above everything T 
own. Oh, well,’’ she gave a little shrug of her 
shoulders as if to end the matter. ‘I’ll get over 
it. had to get over worse things. But,” she 

smiled and patted Billie’s shoulder fondly, “I didn’t 
mean I0 burden your young shoulders with my 
troubles. Just run along and forget all about it.” 

Billie did run along, but she most certainly did 
not “forget all about it.” 

“Funny thing to get so upset about,” she said 
to herself, as she slowly climbed the steps to her 
dormitory. “A picture album! I don’t believe I’d 
ever get my nose and eyes all red over one. Just 
the same, I’d like to find it and give it back to her. 
Good Miss Arbuckle! After the Dill Pickles, she 
seems like an angel.” 

She was still smiling over the thought of what 
had happened to the Dill Pickles when she opened 
the door of the dormitory and came upon her 
chums. 

Laura and Vi and a dark-haired, pink-cheeked 
girl were sitting on one of the beds in one comer 
of the dormitory, alternately talking and gazing 
dreamily out of the window to Lake Molata, where 
it gleamed and shimmered in the morning sunlight 
at the end of a sloping lawn. 

The dark-haired, pink-cheeked girl was Rose 
Belser. Rose Belser, being jealous of Billie’s im- 
mense popularity at Three Towers Hall the term 


Much Ado About Nothing 37 

before, had done her best to get the new girl into 
trouble, only to be won over to Billie’s side in the 
end. Now she was as firm a friend of Billie’s as 
any girl in Three Towers Hall. 

“Well !” was Laura’s greeting as Billie sauntered 
toward them. “Methinks ’tis time you arrived, 
sweet damsel. Goodness !” she added, dropping her 
lazy tone and sitting up with a bounce, “I don’t see 
why you have to go and spoil the whole morning 
with your beastly old studying. Think of the fun 
we could have had.” 

“Well, but think of the fun we’re going to have 
this afternoon,” Billie flung back airily, stopping 
before the mirror to tuck some wisps of hair into 
place, while the girls, even Rose, who was as pretty 
as a picture herself, watched her admiringly. “It’s 
almost lunch time.” 

“You don’t have to tell us that,” said Vi in an 
aggrieved tone. “Haven’t we been waiting for you 
all morning?” 

“Oh, come on,” said Billie, as the lunch gong 
sounded invitingly through the hall. “Maybe when 
you’ve had something to eat you’ll feel better. Feed 
the beast ” 

“Say, she’s calling us names again,” cried Laura, 
making a dive for Billie. But Billie was already 
flying down the steps two at a time, and when 
Billie once got a head start, no one, at least no 


38 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

one in Three Towers Hall, had a chance of catch- 
ing up with her. 

It seemed to be Billie’s day for bumping into peo- 
ple — for at the foot of the stairs she had to clutch 
the banister to keep from colliding with Miss Wal- 
ters, the beautiful and much loved head of the 
school. 

At Billie’s sudden appearance the latter seemed 
inclined to be alarmed, then her eyes twinkled, and 
as she looked at Billie she chuckled, yes, actually 
chuckled. 

“Beatrice Bradley,” she said, with a shake of her 
head as she passed on, “I’ve done my best with you, 
but it’s of no use. You’re utterly incorrigible.” 

Billie looked thoughtful as she seated herself at 
the table, and a moment later, under cover of the 
general conversation, she leaned over and whispered 
to Laura. 

“Miss Walters said something funny to me,” she 
confided. “I’m not quite sure yet whether she was 
calling me names or not.” 

“What did she say?” asked Laura, looking in- 
terested. 

“She said I was incorrigible,” Billie whispered 
back. 

“Incorrigible,” there was a frown on Laura’s 
forehead, then it suddenly cleared and she smiled 
beamingly. 

“Why yes, don’t you remember?” she said. “We 


Much Ado About Nothing 39 

had it in English class the other day. Incorrigible 
means wicked, you know — bad. You can't reform 
'em, you know — incorrigibles." The last word was 
mumbled through a mouthful of soup. 

“Can't reform 'em!" Billie repeated in dismay. 
“Goodness, do you suppose that's what she really 
thinks of me?" 

“I don’t see why she shouldn’t,” Laura said wick- 
edly, and Billie would surely have thrown some- 
thing at her if Miss Arbuckle’s eye had not hap- 
pened at that moment to turn in her direction. 

Miss Arbuckle’s eye brought to Billie’s mind the 
teacher’s trouble, and she confided it in a low tone 
to Laura. 

“Humph," commented Laura, her mind only on 
the fun they were going to have that afternoon, 
“I’m sorry, of course, but I don’t believe any old 
album would make me shed tears." 

“Don’t be so sure of that, Laura." 

“What? Cry over an old album?" and Laura 
looked her astonishment. 

“But suppose the album had in it the pictures of 
those you loved very dearly — pictures perhaps of 
those that were dead and gone and pictures that you 
couldn’t replace?" 

“Oh, well — I suppose that would be different. 
Did she say anything about the people?" 

“She didn’t go into details, but she said they 
were pictures she prized above anything." 


40 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

“Oh, perhaps then that would make a difference.” 

“I hope she gets the album back,” said Billie 
seriously. 

Then Laura promptly forgot all about both Miss 
Arbuckle and the album. 

A little while later the girls swung joyfully out 
upon the road, bound for town and shopping and 
perhaps some ice cream and — oh, just a jolly good 
time of the kind girls know so well how to have, 
especially in the spring of the year. 


CHAPTER VI 


FOUND ONE ALBUM 

'T’m sorry Connie couldn’t come along,” said 
Laura, drinking in deep breaths of the fragrant air. 

‘‘Yes,” said Billie, her eyes twinkling. “She said 
she wished she hadn’t been born with a conscience.” 

“A conscience,” said Vi innocently. “Why?” 

“Because,” said Billie, her cheeks aglow with 
the heat and exercise, her brown hair clinging in 
little damp ringlets to her forehead, and her eyes 
bright with health and the love of life, “then she 
could have had a good time to-day instead of stay- 
ing at home in a stuffy room and writing a cartload 
of letters. She says if she doesn’t write them, she’ll 
never dare face her friends when she gets home.” 

“She’s a darling,” said Laura, executing a little 
skip in the road that sent the dust flying all about 
them. “Just think — if we hadn’t met her we 
wouldn’t be looking forward to Lighthouse Island 
and a dear old uncle who owns the light ” 

“Anybody would think he was your uncle,” said 
Vi. 

“Well, he might just as well be,” Laura retorted. 

41 


42 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

“Connie says that he adopts all the boys and girls 
about the place.” 

“And that they adopt him,” Billie added, with a 
nod. “He must be a darling. Fm just crazy to see 
him.” 

Connie DanveFs Uncle Tom attended the light- 
house, and, living there all the year around, had 
become as much of a fixture as the island itself. 
Connie loved this uncle of hers, and had told the 
girls enough about him to rouse their curiosity and 
make them very eager to meet him. 

The girls walked on in silence for a little way 
and then, as they came to a path that led into the 
woods, Laura stopped suddenly and said in a dra- 
matic voice: 

“Do you realize where we are, my friends? Do 
you, by any chance, remember a tall, thin, wild-eyed 
man?” 

Did they remember ? In a flash they were back 
again in a queer little hut in the woods, where a tall, 
man stood and stared at them with strange eyes. 

Laura and Vi started to go on, but Billie stood 
staring at the path with fascinated eyes, 

“I wonder why,” she said, as she turned slowly 
away in response to the urging of the girls, “noth- 
ing ever seems the same in the sunlight. The 
other night when we were running along that path 
we were scared to death, and now ” 

“You sound as if you’d like to stay scared to 


Found — One Album 


43 

death/’ said Laura impatiently, for Laura had not 
Billie’s imagination. 

guess I don’t like to be scared any more than 
any one else,” Billie retorted. “But I would like 

to see that man again. I wonder ” she paused 

and Vi prompted her. 

“Wonder what?” she asked. 

“Why,” said Billie, a thoughtful little crease on 
her forehead, “I was just wondering if we could 
find the little hut again if we tried.” 

“Of course we couldn’t!” Laura was very decided 
about it. “We were lost, weren’t we? And when 
the man showed us the way back it was dark ” 

“The only way I can see,” said Vi, who often 
had rather funny ideas, “would be to have one of 
us stand in the road and hold on to strings tied to 
the other two so that if they got lost ” 

“The one in the road could haul ’em back,” said 
Laura sarcastically. “That’s a wonderful idea, 
Vi.” 

“Well, I would like to see that man again,” sighed 
Billie. “He seemed so sad. Fm sure he was in 
trouble, and Fd so like to help him.” 

“Yes and when you offered you nearly got your 
head bit off,” observed Laura. 

Billie’s eyes twinkled. 

“ThaFs what Daddy says always happens to peo- 
ple who try to help,” she said. “I feel awfully 


44 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

sorry for him, just the same,” she finished decidedly. 

Then Laura did a surprising thing. She put an 
arm about Billie’s shoulders and hugged her fondly. 

‘'Billie Bradley,” she said sadly, ‘T do believe 
you would feel sorry for a snake that bit you, just 
because it was only a snake.” 

“Perhaps that’s why she loves you/^ said Vi in- 
nocently, and scored a point. Laura looked as if 
she wanted to be mad for a minute, but she was 
not. She only laughed with the girls. 

They had as good a time as they had expected 
to have in town that afternoon — and that is saying 
something. 

First they went shopping. Laura had need of 
a ribbon girdle. Although they all knew that a blue 
one would be bought in the end, as blue was the 
color that would go best with the dress with which 
the girdle was to be worn, the merits and beauties of 
a green one and a lavender one were discussed and 
comparisons made with the blue one over and over, 
all from very love of the indecision and, more truly, 
the joy that looking at the dainty, pretty colors gave 
them. 

“Well, I think this is the very best of all, Laura.” 
said Billie finally, picking up the pretty blue girdle 
with its indistinct pattern of lighter blue and white. 

“Yes, it is a beauty,” replied Laura. “I’ll take 
that one,” she went on to the clerk. 

After that came numerous smaller purchases un- 


Found — One Album 


45 


til, as Vi said dolefully, all their money was gone 
except enough to buy several plates of ice cream 
apiece. 

They were standing just outside the store where 
their last purchases had been made when Billie, 
looking down the street, gave a cry of delight. 

‘'Look who’s coming!” she exclaimed. 

“It’s the boys!” cried Vi. “Mercy, girls, we 
might just as well have spent the rest of our money, 
the boys will treat us to the ice cream.” 

“Goodness, Vi ! do you want to spend your money 
whether you get anything you really need or wish 
for or not ?” inquired Billie, with a little gasp. 

“What in the world is money for if not to spend?” 
asked Vi, making big and innocent eyes at Billie. 

Just then the boys came within speaking distance. 

“Well, this is what I call luck!” exclaimed Ferd 
Stowing. 

“Yes,” added Teddy, putting his hand in his 
pocket, “just hear the money jingle. A nice big 
check from Dad in just appreciation of his absent 
son! What do you girls say to an ice-cream spree? 
No less than three apiece, with all this unwonted 
wealth.” 

“Ice cream ? I should say !” was Billie’s somewhat 
slangy acceptance. 

“Teddy,” suddenly asked Laura, “how does it 
come that you have any money left from Dad’s 
check ?” 


46 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

'^Check came just as we left the Academy, Cap- 
tain Shelling cashed it for me, and we have just 
reached town/’ 

*‘Oh! Well, maybe I’ll find one, too, when we 
reach Three Towers.” 

“So that’s it, is it, sister mine? Envy!” 

After that they ate ice cream to repletion, and 
at last the girls decided that there was nothing much 
left to do but to go back to the school. 

It was just as well that they had made this de- 
cision, for the sun was beginning to sink in the west 
and the supper hour at Three Towers Hall was 
rather early. As they started toward home, having 
said good-bye to the boys, the girls quickened their 
pace. 

It was not till they were nearing the path which, 
to Billie at least, had been surrounded by a mys- 
terious halo since the adventure of the other night 
that the girls slowed up. Then it was Billie who did 
the slowing up. 

“Girls,” she said in a hushed voice, “I suppose 
you’ll laugh at me, but I’d just love to follow that 
path into the woods a little way. You don’t need 
to come if you don’t want to. You can wait for me 
here in the road.” 

“Oh, no,” said Laura, with a little sigh of resig- 
nation. “If you are going to be crazy we might 
as well be crazy with you. Come on, Vi, if we 


Found — One Album 


47 

didn’t go along, she would probably get lost all over 
again — just for the fun of it.” 

Billie made a little face at them and plunged into 
the woods. Laura followed, and after a minute’s 
hesitation Vi trailed at Laura’s heels. 

They were so used to Billie’s sudden impulses 
that they had stopped protesting and merely went 
along with her, which, as Billie herself had often 
pointed out, saved a great deal of argument. 

They might have saved themselves all worry on 
Billie’s account this time, though, for she had not 
the slightest intention of getting lost again — once 
was enough. 

She went only as far as the end of the path, and 
when the other girls reached her she was peering 
off into the forest as if she hoped to see the mys- 
trious hut — although she knew as well as Laura 
and Vi that they had walked some distance through 
the woods the other night before they had finally 
reached the path. 

‘Well, are you satisfied?” Laura asked, with a 
patient sigh. “If you don’t mind my saying it, I’m 
getting hungry.” 

“Goodness ! after all that ice cream ?” cried Billie, 
adding with a little chuckle: “You’re luckier than 
I am, Laura. I feel as if I shouldn’t want anything 
to eat for a thousand years.” 

She was just turning reluctantly to follow her 
chums back along the path when a dark, bulky- 


48 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

looking object lying in a clump of bushes near by 
caught her eye and she went over to examine it. 

“Now what in the world ’’ Laura was be- 

ginning despairingly when suddenly Billie gave a 
queer little cry. 

“Come here quick, girls!’* she cried, reaching 
down to pick up the bulky object which had caught 
her attention. “I do believe — yes, it is — it must 
be ” 

“Well, say it!” the others cried, peering impa- 
tiently over her shoulder. 

“Miss Arbuckle’s album,” finished Billie. 


CHAPTER VII 


STRANGE ACTIONS 

Instead of seeming excited, Laura and Vi 
stared. Vi had not even heard that Miss Arbuckle 
had lost an album, and Laura just dimly remembered 
Billie’s having said something about it. 

But Billie’s eyes were shining, and she was all 
eagerness as she picked the old-fashioned volume 
up and began turning over the pages. She was 
thinking of poor Miss Arbuckle’s red nose and eyes 
of that morning and of how different the teacher’s 
face would look when she, Billie, returned the 
album. 

‘'Oh, I’m so glad,” she said. ‘T felt awfully 
sorry for Miss Arbuckle this morning.” 

“Well, I wish I knew what you were talking 
about,” said Vi plaintively, and Billie briefly told of 
her meeting with Miss Arbuckle in the morning 
and of the teacher’s grief at losing her precious 
album. 

“Humph! I don’t see anything very precious 
about it,” sniffed Laura. “Look — ^the comers are 
all worn through.” 


49 


50 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

“Silly, it doesn’t make any difference how old it 
is,” said Vi as they started back along the path, 
Billie holding on tight to the book. “It may have 
pictures in it she wants to save. It may be — what 
is it they call ’em ? — an heirloom or something. And 
Mother says heirlooms are precious.” 

“Well, I know one that isn’t,” said Laura, with a 
little grimace. “Mother has a wreath made out of 
hair of different members of the family. She says 
it’s precious, too; but I notice she keeps it in the 
darkest comer of the attic.” 

“Well, this isn’t a hair wreath, it’s an album,” 
Billie pointed out. “And I don’t blame Miss Ar- 
buckle for not wanting to lose an album with family 
pictures in it.” 

“But how did she come to lose it there?” asked 
Laura, as the road could be seen dimly through the 
trees. “The woods seem a funny place. Girls,” 
and Laura’s eyes began to shine excitedly, “it’s a 
mystery !” 

“Oh, dear,” sighed Vi plaintively, “there she 
goes again. Everything has to be a mystery, wheth- 
er it is or not.” 

“But it is, isn’t it?” insisted Laura, turning to 
Billie for support. “A lady says she has lost an 
album. In a little while we find that same al- 
bum ” 

“I suppose it’s the same,” put in Billie, looking 
at the album as if it had not occurred to her before 


Strange Actions 51 

that this might not be Miss Arbuckle's album, after 
all. 

‘‘Of course it is, silly,'^ Laura went on impa- 
tiently. “It isn’t likely that two people would be 
foolish enough to lose albums on the same day. 
If it had been a stick pin now, or a purse ” 

“Yes, yes, go on,” Billie interrupted. “You were 
talking about mysteries.” 

“Well, it is, isn’t it?” demanded Laura, becoming 
so excited she could not talk straight. “What was 
Miss Arbuckle doing in the woods with her album, 
in the first place?” 

“She might have been looking at it,” suggested 
Vi mildly. 

Billie giggled at the look Laura gave Vi. 

“Yes. But may I ask,” said Laura, trying to 
appear very dignified, “why, if she only wanted to 
look at the pictures, she couldn’t do it some place 
else — in her room, for instance?” 

“Goodness, I’m not a detective,” said poor Vi. 
“If you want to ask any questions go and ask Miss 
Arbuckle. I didn’t lose the old album.” 

Laura gave a sigh of exasperation. 

“A person might as well try to talk to a pair of 
wooden Indians,” she cried, then turned appealingly 
to Billie. “Don’t you think there’s something mys- 
terious about it, Billie?” 

“Why, it does seem kind of queer,” Billie ad- 
mitted, adding quickly as Laura was about to turn 


!52 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

upon Vi with a whoop of triumph. ‘‘But I don’t 
think it’s very mysterious. Probably Miss Ar- 
buckle just wanted to be alone or something, and 
so she brought the album out into the woods to look 
it over by herself. I like to do it sometimes my- 
self — with a book I mean. Just sneak off where 
nobody can find me and read and read until I get 
so tired I fall asleep.” 

“Well, but you can’t look at pictures in a shabby 
old album until you feel so tired you fall asleep,” 
grumbled Laura, feeling like a cat that has just had 
a saucer of rich cream snatched from under its 
nose. “You girls w'^ouldn’t know a mystery if you 
fell over it.” 

“Maybe not,” admitted Billie good-naturedly, her 
face brightening as she added, contentedly: “But 
I do know one thing, and that is that Miss Ar- 
buckle is going to be very glad when she sees this 
old album again!” 

And she was right. When they reached Three 
Towers Hall Laura and Vi went upstairs to the 
dormitory to wash up and get ready for supper 
while Billie stopped at Miss Arbuckle’s door, eager 
to tell her the good news at once. 

She rapped gently, and, receiving no reply, softly 
pushed the door open. Miss Arbuckle was stand- 
ing by the window looking out, and somehow Billie 
knew, even before the teacher turned around, that 
she had been crying again. 


Strange Actions 53 

The tired droop of the shoulders, the air of dis- 
couragement — suddenly there flashed across Billie^s 
mind a different picture, the picture of a tall lank 
man with stooped shoulders and dark, deep-set eyes, 
looking at her strangely. 

A puzzled little line formed itself across her fore- 
head. Why, she thought, had Miss Arbuckle made 
her think of the man who called himself Hugo 
Billings and who lived in a hut in the woods? 

Perhaps because they both seemed so very sad. 
Yes, that must be it. Then her face brightened as 
she felt the bulky album under her arm. Here was 
something that would make Miss Arbuckle smile, at 
least. 

Billie spoke softly and was taken aback at the 
suddenness with which Miss Arbuckle turned upon 
her, regarding her with startled eyes. 

For a moment teacher and pupil regarded each 
other. Then slowly a pitiful, crooked smile twitched 
Miss Arbuckle’s lips and her hand reached out 
gropingly for the back of a chair. 

‘‘Oh, it’s — it’s you,” she stammered, adding with 
an apologetic smile that made her look more natu- 
ral: “I’m a little nervous to-day — a little upset. 
What is it, Billie? Why didn’t you knock?” The 
last words were said in Miss Arbuckle’s. calm, 
slightly dry voice, and Billie began to feel more 
natural herself. She had been frightened when 
Miss Arbuckle swung around upon her. 


54 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

“I did/' she answered. ''Knock, I mean. But 
you didn't hear me. I found something of yours, 
Miss Arbuckle." Her eyes fell to the volume she 
still carried under her arm, and Miss Arbuckle, 
following the direction of her gaze, recognized her 
album. 

She gave a little choked cry, and her face grew 
so white that Billie ran to her, fearing she hardly 
knew what. But she had no need to worry, for 
although fear sometimes kills, joy never does, and 
in a minute Miss Arbuckle's eager hands were 
clutching the volume, her fingers trembling as they 
rapidly turned over the leaves. 

"Yes, here they are, here they are," she cried sud- 
denly, and Billie, peeping over her shoulder, looked 
down at the pictured faces of three of the most 
beautiful children she had ever seen. "My darl- 
ings, my darlings," Miss Arbuckle was saying over 
and over again. Then suddenly her head dropped 
to the open page and her shoulders shook with the 
sobs that tore themselves from her. 

Billie turned away and tiptoed across the room, 
her own eyes wet, but she stopped with her hand 
on the door. 

"My little children!" Miss Arbuckle cried out 
sobbingly. "My precious little babies! I couldn’t 
lose your pictures after losing you. They were all 
I had left of you, and I couldn’t lose them, I 
couldn’t — I couldn’t " 


Strange Actions 55 

Billie opened the door, and, stepping out into 
the hall, closed it softly after her. She brushed 
her hand across her eyes, for there were tears in 
them, and her feet felt shaky as she started up the 
stairs. 

“Well, I — I never!” she told herself unsteadily. 
“First she nearly scares me to death. And then 
she cries and talks about her children, and says 
she's lost them. Goodness, I shouldn’t wonder but 
that Laura is right after all. There certainly is 
something mighty strange about it.” 

And when, a few minutes later, she told the stoiy 
to her chums they agreed with her, even Vi. 

“Why, I never heard of such a thing,” said the 
latter, looking interested. “You say she seemed 
frightened when you went in, Billie?” 

“Terribly,” answered Billie. “li seemed as if 
she might faint or something.” 

“And the children,” Laura mused delightedly 
aloud. “I’m going to find out who those children 
are and why they are lost if I die doing it.” 

“Now look who she thinks she is,” jeered Vi. 

“Who ?” asked Laura with interest. 

“The Great Lady Detective,” said Vi, and 
Laura’s chest, if one takes Billie’s word for it, 
swelled to about three times its natural size. 

“That’s all right,” said Laura, in response to the 
girls’ gibes. “Lll get in some clever work, with 
nothing but a silly old photograph album as a clue. 


56 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

or a motive — oh, well, I don’t know just what the 
album is yet, but an album is worse than common- 
place, it is plumb foolish as a center around which 
to work. Oh, ho! Great Lady Detective! Solves 
most marvelous and intricate mystery with only the 
slightest of clues, an old photograph album, to point 
the way ! Oh, ho !” 


CHAPTER VIII 


AN INVITATION 

The girls could never have told exactly why, but 
they kept the mystery of the album and Miss Ar- 
buckle’s strange actions to themselves, with one ex- 
ception. 

They did confide their secret to fluffy-haired, 
blue-eyed Connie Danvers. For they had long ago 
adopted Connie as one of themselves and were 
beginning to feel that they had known her all their 
lives. 

Connie had been interested enough in their story 
to satisfy even the chums and had urged Billie to 
describe the pretty children in the album over whom 
Miss Arbuckle had cried. 

Billie tried, but, having seen the pictures but once, 
it was hardly to be expected that she would be able 
to give the girls a very clear description of them. 

It was good enough to satisfy Connie, however, 
who, in her enthusiasm, went so far as to suggest 
that they form a Detective Club. 

This the girls might have done if it had not been 
for an interruption in the form of Chet Bradley, 
57 


58 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

Teddy Jordon and their chum, Ferd Stowing. 

The boys had entered Boxton Military Academy 
at the time the girls had entered Three Towers 
Hall, and the boys were as enthusiastic about their 
academy as the girls were about their beloved 
school. 

The head of Boxton Military Academy was Cap- 
tain Shelling, a splendid example of army officer 
whom all the students loved and admired. They 
did not know it, but there was not one of the boys 
in the school who did not hope that some day he 
might be like Captain Shelling. 

Now, as the spring term was drawing to a close, 
there were great preparations being made at the 
Academy for the annual parade of cadets. 

The girls knew that visitors were allowed, and 
they were beginning to wonder a little uneasily 
whether they were to be invited or not when one 
afternoon the boys turned up and settled the ques- 
tion for them very satisfactorily. 

It was Saturday afternoon, just a week after the 
finding of Miss Arbuckle’s album, and the girls, 
Laura, Billie, Vi and Connie, were wandering arm 
in arm about the beautiful campus of Three 
Towers Hall when a familiar hail came to them 
from the direction of the road. 

“Iris Chet,'’ said Billie. 

“No, it isn’t — it’s Teddy,” contradicted Laura. 

“It’s both of ’em,” added Vi. 


An Invitation 


59 

‘‘No, you are both wrong,’' said Connie, gazing 
eagerly through the trees. ‘^H<ere they come, girls. 
Look, there are four of them.” 

“Yes, there are four of them,” mocked Laura, 
mischievous eyes on Connie’s reddening face. “The 
third is Ferd Stowing, of course. And I wonder, 
oh, I wonder, who the fourth can be !” 

“Don’t be so silly ! I think you’re horrid !” cried 
Connie, which only made Laura chuckle the more. 

For while they had been at the Academy, the 
boys had made a friend. His name was Paul Mar- 
tinson, and he was tall and strongly built and — 
yes, even Billie had to admit it — almost as good 
looking as Teddy! 

If Billie said that about any one it was pretty 
sure to be true. For Billie and Teddy Jordon had 
been chums and playmates since they could remem- 
ber, and Billie had always been sure that Teddy 
must be the very best looking boy in the world, not 
even excepting her brother Chet, of whom she was 
very fond. 

But Billie was not the only one who had found 
Paul Martinson good looking. Connie had liked 
him, and had said innocently one day after the boys 
had gone that Paul Martinson looked like the hero 
in a story book she was reading. 

The girls had giggled, and since then Laura had 
made poor Connie’s life miserable — or so Connie 


6o Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

declared. She could not have forgotten Paul Mar- 
tinson, even if she had wanted to. 

As for Paul Martinson, he had shown a liking 
for Billie that somehow made Teddy uncomfort- 
able. Teddy was very much surprised to find how 
uncomfortable it did make him. Billie was a “good 
little chum and all that, but that didn’t say that an- 
other fellow couldn’t speak to her.” But just the 
same he had acted so queerly two or three times 
lately that Billie had bothered him exceedingly ask- 
ing him what the matter with him was and telling 
him to “cheer up, it wasn’t somebody’s funeral, you 
know.” Billie had been puzzled over his answer to 
that. He had muttered something about “it’s not 
anybody’s funeral yet, maybe, but everything had 
to start sometime.” 

When Billie had innocently told Laura about it 
she was still more puzzled at the way Laura had 
acted. Instead of being sensible, she had suddenly 
buried her face in the pillow — they had been sitting 
on Billie’s bed, exchanging confidences — and fairly 
shook with laughter. 

“Well, what in the world ” Billie had begun 

rather resentfully, when Laura had interrupted her 
with an hysterical: “For goodness sake, Billie, I 
never .thought you could be so dense. But you are. 
You’re absolutely crazy, and so is Teddy, and so is 
everybody !” 


An Invitation 6i 

And after that Billie never confided any of 
Teddy’s sayings to Laura again. 

On this particular afternoon it did not take the 
girls long to find out that the boys had some good 
news to tell them. 

*'Come on down to the dock,” Teddy said, taking 
hold of Billie’s arm and urging her down toward 
the lake as he spoke. ^‘Maybe we can find some 
canoes and rowboats that aren’t working.” 

But when they reached the dock there was never 
a craft of any kind to be seen except those far 
out upon the glistening water of the lake. Of 
course the beautiful weather was responsible for 
this, for all the girls who had not lessons to do or 
errands in town had made a bee line — as Ferd 
Stowing expressed it — straight down to the lake. 

“Oh, well, this will do,” said Teddy, sitting down 
on the edge of the little dock so that his feet could 
hang over and reaching up a hand for Billie. “Come 
along, everybody. We can look at the water, any- 
way.” 

The girls and boys scrambled down obediently 
and there was great excitement when Connie’s foot 
slipped and she very nearly tumbled into the lake. 
Paul Martinson steadied her, and she thanked him 
with a little blush that made Laura lock at her 
wickedly. 

“How beautifully pink your complexion is in the 
warm weather, Connie,” she said innocently, add- 


62 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

ing with a little look that made Connie want to 
shake her: “It can't be anything hut the heat, can 
it? You haven't a fever, or something?" 

“No. But you'll have something beside a fever," 
threatened Connie, “if you don't keep still." 

“Say, stop your rowing, girls, and listen to me,” 
Teddy interrupted, picking a pebble from the dock 
and throwing it far out into the gleaming water, 
where it dropped with a little splash. “Our famous 
parade of cadets comes off next week. You're go- 
ing to be on deck, aren't you ?" 

“We might," said Billie, with a demure little 
glance at him, “if somebody would only ask us !" 


CHAPTER IX 


AMANDA AGAIN 

The great day came at last and found the girls 
in a fever of mingled excitement and fear. Excite- 
ment because of the great advent; fear, because 
the sky had been overcast since early morning and 
it looked as if the whole thing might have to be 
postponed on account of rain. 

“And if there is anything I hate,^^ complained 
Laura, moving restlessly from her mirror over to 
the window and back again, “it’s to be all prepared 
for a thing and then have it spoiled at the last min- 
ute by rain.” 

“Well, I guess you don’t hate it any more than 
the rest of us,” said Billie, her thoughts on the 
pretty pink flowered dress she had decided to wear 
to the parade. It was not only a pretty dress, but 
was very becoming. Both Teddy and Chet had told 
her so. “And the boys would be terribly disap- 
pointed,” she added. 

“I wonder,” Vi was sitting on the bed, sewing a 
hook and eye on the dress she had intended to wear, 
“if Amanda Peabody and The Shadow will be 
there.” 


63 


64 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

Laura turned abruptly from the window and re- 
garded her with a reproachful stare. 

“Now I know you're a joy killer," she said; “for 
if Amanda Peabody and The Shadow (the name 
the girls had given Eliza Dilks because she always 
followed Amanda as closely as a shadow does) 
succeeded in getting themselves invited to any sort 
of affair where we girls were to be, they would be 
sure to do something annoying." 

“They are going to be there, just the same," said 
Billie, and the two girls looked at her in surprise. 
“They told me so," she said, in answer to the un- 
spoken question. “They have some sort of rela- 
tives among the boys at the Academy, and these 
relatives didn't liave sense enough not to invite 
them." 

“Humph!" grunted Laiu^, “Amanda probably 
hinted around till the boys couldn’t help inviting 
her. Look — oh, look !" she cried in such a different 
tone that the girls stared at her. “The sun!" she 
said. “Oh, it's going to clear up, it’s going to 
clear up!" 

“Well, you needn't step in my blue silk for all 
that,” complained Vi, as Laura caught an exultant 
heel in the latter’s dress. 

“Don't be grouchy, darling," said Laura, all 
good-nature again now that the sun had appeared. 
“My, but we’re going to have a good time!" 

“I’ll say we are,” sang out Billie, as she gayly 


Amanda Again 65 

spread out the pink flowered dress upon the bed. 
‘And we're not going to let anybody spoil it either 
— even Eliza Dilks and Amanda Peabody." 

The girls had an hour in which to get ready, and 
they were ready and waiting before half that time 
was up. The Three Towers Hall carryall was to 
call for the girls who had been lucky enough to re- 
ceive invitations from the cadets of Boxton Mili- 
tary Academy, and as the girls, looking like gay- 
colored butterflies in their summery dresses, gath- 
ered on the steps of the school there were so many 
of them that it began to look as if the carryall would 
have to make two trips. 

“If we have to go in sections I wonder whether 
we’ll be in the first or second," Vi was saying when 
Billie grasped her arm. 

“Look," she cried, merriment in her eyes and in 
her voice. “Here come Amanda and Eliza. Did 
you ever see anything so funny — and awful — in 
your life?" 

For Amanda and her chum were dressed in their 
Sunday best — poplin dresses with a huge, gorgeous 
flower design that made the pretty, delicate-colored 
dresses of the other girls look pale and washed- 
out by comparison. If Amanda’s and Eliza’s de- 
sire was to be the most noticeable and lalked-of 
girls on the parade, they were certainly going to 
succeed. The talk had begun already! 

However, the arrival of the carryall cut short the 


66 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

girls’ amusement, and there was great excitement 
and noise and giggling as the girls — all who could 
get in, that is — clambered in. 

There were about a dozen left over, and these 
the driver promised to come back and pick up ‘*in 
a jiffy.” 

“I’m feeling awfully nervous,” Laura confided 
to Billie. “I never expected to be nervous; did 
you?” 

“Yes, I did,” Billie answered truthfully. “I’ve 
been nervous ever since the boys invited us. It’s 
because it’s all so new, I guess. We’ve never been 
to anything like this before.” 

“I’m frightened to death when I think of meet- 
ing Captain Shelling,” Connie leaned across Vi to 
say. “From what the boys say about him he must 
be simply won-derful.” 

“Paul had better look out,” said Laura slyly, and 
Connie drew back sharply. 

“I think you’re mean to tease Connie so,” spoke 
up Vi. “She doesn’t like Paul Martinson any bet- 
ter than the rest of us do, and you know it.” 

“Oh, I do, do I ” began Laura, but Billie 

broke in hastily. 

“Girls,” she cried, “stop your quarreling. Look ! 

We’re at the Academy. And — ^look — look ” 

Words failed her, and she just stared wonderingly 
at the sight that met her eyes. It was true, none 
of them had ever seen anything like it before. 


Amanda Again 67 

Booths of all sorts and colors were distributed 
over the parade ground, leaving free only the part 
where the cadets were to march. Girls in bright- 
colored dresses and boys in trig uniforms were al- 
ready walking about making brilliant patches of 
color against the green of the parade ground. 

There were some older people, too, fathers and 
mothers of the boys, but the groups were mostly 
made up of young people, gay and excited with 
the exhilaration of the moment. 

There were girls and matrons in the costume of 
French peasants wandering in and out among the 
visitors, carrying little baskets filled with ribbon- 
tied packages. Some of these packages contained 
candy, some just little foolish things to make the 
young folks laugh, favors to take away with them 
and remember the day by. 

As the carryall stopped and one after another the 
girls jumped to the ground they were surprised to 
find that their nervousness, instead of growing less, 
was getting worse and worse all the time. 

They were standing on the edge of things, won- 
dering just what to do next and wishing some one 
would meet them when some one did just that 
very thing. 

Paul Martinson spied the carryall from Three 
Towers Hall, called to a couple of his friends, and 
came running down toward the girls, his handsome 
face alight with pleasure. 


68 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

“Hello!” he said. “We thought you were never 
coming. Say, you make all the other girls look like 
nothing at all.” He was supposed to be talking to 
them all, but he was looking straight at Billie. 

But although the other girls noticed it, Billie did 
not. She was looking beyond Paul to where three 
boys, Teddy in the lead, were bearing down upon 
them. 

After that the boys soon made their guests feel 
as if );hey had never been nervous in their lives, 
and they entered into the fun with all their hearts. 

The parade of cadets was the most wonderful 
part of it all, of course, and the girls stood through 
it, their hearts beating wildly, a delicious wave of 
patriotism thrilling to their finger tips. And when 
it was over the girls looked at Teddy and Chet and 
Ferd and Paul with a new respect that the boys 
liked but did not understand at all. 

Several times during the afternoon they came 
across Eliza and Amanda and their escorts — who 
did not look like bad boys at all. But only once 
did the girls try to shove to the front. 

It was when Teddy and Paul had taken Billie and 
Connie over to the ice cream booth for refresh- 
ments, the other boys and girls having wandered off 
somewhere by themselves. 

Billie was standing up near the counter when 
Eliza Dilks deliberately elbowed her way in ahead 
of her. 


Amanda Again 69 

Billie began to feel herself getting angry, but 
before she could say anything, Teddy spoke over 
her shoulder. 

'Tlease serve us next,” he said to the pleasant- 
faced matron who had charge of this part of the 
refreshments. '‘Some of these others just came 
in and belong at the end of the line.” 

“Yes, I noticed you were here first,” the woman 
answered, and handed Billie her ice cream over 
Eliza’s head while Eliza, with a glance at Billie 
that should have killed her on the spot, turned 
sullenly and walked away. 

“Teddy, you’re a wonder,” murmured Billie un- 
der her breath. “I couldn’t have done it like that 
myself.” 

After this encounter Billie and her party wan- 
dered over to the dancing pavilion on the outside 
of which they met Laura and Vi and their escorts 
for the afternoon. 

“Isn’t this the dandiest band in the world?” 
sighed Billie in supreme content. “Such music 
would make — would make even Amanda Peabody 
dance well.” 

“Oh, come, Billie, that’s too much!” laughed 
Teddy, swinging her on to the floor and giving 
her what she called a heavenly dance. 

And indeed what could have been better fun than 
this dance on a smooth floor so large that it did not 
seem crowded, to the best of music, with a partner 


1 


70 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

who was a perfect dancer, and — though Billie did 
not say this to herself — by a girl who was herself 
as light and graceful a dancer as was on the floor? 

All things must end, even the most perfect day 
in a lifetime, as Vi called it, and finally the girls 
had been tucked into the carryall and were once 
more back at Three Towers Hall, ready, with a 
new day, to take up the routine of school life once 
more. 


CHAPTER X 


TWO OF A KIND 

Several days had passed, and the girls were at 
last actually looking forward to the end of the 
school term and to the Danvers bungalow on Light- 
house Island! 

The graduates were running around excitedly in 
the last preparations for graduation with the 
strange look on their young faces that most gradu- 
ates have, half exultation at the thought of their 
success, half grief at being forced to leave the 
school, the friends they had made, the scenes they 
had loved. 

Just the day befoi^ the one set for graduation 
Teddy ran over to fell the girls some wonderful 
news. He was able to see only Billie, for the other 
girls had been busy with their lessons. But that 
was very satisfactory to Teddy. 

As soon as the lunch gong rang Billie had called 
the girls together and eagerly she told them what 
Teddy had told her. 

“Paul Martinson’s father gave him a beautiful 
big motor boat — a cruising motor boat,” she told 
71 


72 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

the girls. *Taul got the highest average in his class 
this term, you know, and his father has given him 
the motor boat as a so^t of prize.’’ 

motor boat !” cried Vi, breathlessly. “That’s 
some prize.” 

“But, Billie, what’s that got to do with us?” asked 
Laura practically. 

“It hasn’t much to do with us,” said Billie, her 
face pink with excitement. “But it has a great deal 
to do with the boys. Paul Martinson has asked 
Chet and Ferd and Teddy to go with him and his 
father on a cruise this summer.” 

She paused from lack of breath, and the girls 
looked at her in amazement. 

“My, that’s wonderful for them,” said Laura 
after a minute, adding a little regretfully: “But I 
suppose it means that we won’t see very much of 
the boys this summer.” 

“Oh, but that’s just what it doesn’t mean !” Billie 
interrupted eagerly. “Don’t you see? Why, Teddy 
said that it would be the easiest thing in the world 
to stop off at Lighthouse Island some time and see 
us girls.” 

The girls agreed that it was all perfectly wonder- 
ful, that everything was working just for them, 
and that this couldn’t possibly help being the most 
wonderful summer they had ever spent. 

They did not have as much time to think about 
it as they would have liked, however, in the busy 


Two of a Kind 


73 


excited hours that followed. Right after the gradu- 
ating exercises all the girls were to start for their 
homes, except the few who expected to spend the 
summer at Three Towers Hall. 

Many of the relatives and friends of the gradu- 
ates were expected, so that preparations had to be 
made for them also. The graduating exercises were 
to be held earlier at Boxton Military Academy than 
at Three Towers Hall, so that the three North Bend 
boys hoped to get away in time to attend — not the 
exercises themselves — but the singing on the steps 
of Three Towers Hall by all the students of the 
school, which was one of the most important parts 
of the ceremony. 

Then, of course, the boys would be able to go 
with the girls all the way to North Bend. 

The exercises that had been looked forward to 
for so long and that had taken weeks of preparation 
to perfect; were over at last. The graduates real- 
ized with a sinking of the heart that they were no 
longer students of Three Towers Hall. 

There was still the mass singing on the steps, to 
be sure, but that was simply the last barrier to be 
crossed before they stepped out on the open road, 
leaving Three Towers Hall with its pkasing asso- 
ciations behind them forever. 

As the girls, in their simple white dresses, gath- 
ered on the steps of the school with the visitors, 
fathers and mothers and boys in uniform, scattered 


74 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

about on the campus below them, and began to sing 
in their clear, girlish voices, there was hardly a dry 
eye anywhere. 

At last it was over, and the girls rushed upstairs 
again to change their dresses for traveling clothes 
and say a last good-bye to their teachers and to 
Miss Walters. 

As Billie was hurrying down the corridor, bag in 
hand, toward the front door a hand was laid gently 
on her arm, and, turning, she found herself face 
to face with Miss Arbuckle. 

“Billie,’’ said the teacher hurriedly, “I have never 
thanked you' rightly for the great favor you did in 
returning my album to me. But I love you for it, 
dear. God bless you,” and before Billie could 
think of a word to say in reply, the teacher had 
turned, slipped through one of the doors and disap- 
peared. 

Billie stood staring after Miss Arbuckle, lost in 
thought about her, until Laura and Vi, hurrying 
up, caught her by the arm and hustled her through 
the front door, down the steps and into the waiting 
carryall. The carryall, by the way, was to make 
many trips that day, even though a great many of 
the girls had automobiles belonging to their rela- 
tives or friends which would take them straight to 
their destination. 

When the girls had climbed inside, the boys 
jumped in after them, and the carryall, having by 


Two of a Kind 


75 

this time all that it could hold, started down the 
long, winding driveway to the road. 

“Good-bye, Three Towers, for a little time, at 
least,*^ cried Billie, while she felt a curious lump in 
her throat. She was terribly afraid she was going 
to cry, so she stopped talking and turned to stare 
out of the window. 

“We’ve had a wonderful time there,” said Laura 
in, for her, a very sober tone. “Better than we 
expected.” 

“Which is going some,'* finished Vi slangily, 
and as slang from Vi somehow always made them 
laugh, they laughed now and felt better for it. 

“Well, we didn’t have such a very slow time our- 
selves,” said Billie’s brother Chet, his good looking 
face lighting up with eagerness. 

“And it’s something to have made a friend like 
Paul Martinson,” spoke up Ferd Stowing from 
where he was squeezed in between Laura and Vi. 

“You bet — ^he’s some boy,” added Teddy heartily, 
forgetting for the moment that there had been times 
when he had longed to throw Paul Martinson into 
the lake — or some deeper place — because he had 
talked too much to Billie. 

But here was a beautiful long train ride before 
him when he could talk to Billie — or any one else — 
all he liked without having any Paul Martinson try- 
ing to “butt in” all the time. No wonder he was 
friends with all the world. 


76 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

“Where is Paul? Why didn’t he come with us?” 
asked Billie. 

“He went home with his dad,” Chet explained. 
“Of course he was crazy to see his motor boat, and 
then he had to make arrangements for our cruise. 
Oh boy, think of cruising around the coast in a 
motor boat!” 

“We wanted Connie to come along with us,” said 
Billie. “But she said she would have to go home 
first.” 

“When are you girls going to start for Light- 
house Island?” Ferd asked with interest. “Have 
you set any time yet?” 

“Not a regular date,” answered Laura. “But it 
will be in a week or two I think. We’ll have to 
have time to get acquainted with the folks again and 
have our clothes fixed up- ” 

“And then Connie’s coming on to North Bend,” 
Vi added eagerly. “And we’ll all go together from 
there to the coast. Oh dear, I can’t wait to start.” 

“Well, I guess you’ll have to,” said Billie, with a 
sigh, “since we haven’t even reached horne yet.” 

“That reminds me,” said Laura, turning upon 
Billie accusingly. “What were you doing standing 
in the hall just now and looking as though you had 
lost your last friend when Vi and I came along and 
woke you up? Come on, ’fess up.” 

Billie could not think for a moment what she 
had been doing, then she remembered Miss Arbuckle 


Two of a Kind 


77 

and the rather peculiar way the teacher had thanked 
her for the return of the album. 

She told the girls about it, and they listened with 
interest while the boys looked as if they would like 
to have known what it was all about. 

‘^Now I wonder ’’ Laura was beginning when 

Billie suddenly caught her hand and pointed to the 
road. 

‘‘Look !” she cried. “It’s Hugo Billings, our sad- 
faced man again. Oh, girls, I wish we could do 
something for him.” 

She leaned far out the window, smiled and waved 
her hand to the man, who was standing moodily by 
the roadside. At sight of her he straightened up 
and an answering smile flashed across his thin face, 
making him look so different that the girls were 
amazed. 

But when they looked back at him again a few 
seconds later his smile had gone and he was staring 
after them gloomily. 

“Goodness, I never saw a person look so sad in 
all my life,” murmured Vi, as a turn in the road hid 
the man from view. 

“Well, I have,” said Billie. “And that’s Miss 
Arbuckle!” 

“There must be some sort of mystery about them 
both,” remarked Laura. “Maybe that man has a 
whole lot on his mind.” 

“And maybe Miss Arbuckle isn’t miss at all,” 


78 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

added Vi. ^'Perhaps she’s Mrs. Arbuckle and those 
children were her own.” 

Billie did not reply to this. She heaved some- 
thing of a sigh. She was unable to explain it, but 
she felt very sorry for both the teacher and the 
Queer man. Would the queer mystery ever be ex- 
plained? 


CHAPTER XI 


AT HOME 

A FEW hours later a train puffed noisily into the 
familiar station at North Bend, and as it came to a 
stop three and three girls tumbled down the 
steps of a car and literally ran into the arms of 
their waiting families. 

At least, the girls did ; the boys considered them- 
selves far too dignified. However, they soon for- 
got dignity and everything else in a noisy and joy- 
ful recital of all the good times they had had during 
their year of absence. 

Of course there had been others from the Mili- 
tary Academy and Three Towers Hall on the train 
whose friends and relatives had also come to meet 
them so that it was a very much excited crowd that 
wound its way up the ordinarily quiet main street 
of North Bend. 

Gradually the crowd separated into little groups, 
each going its separate way to its separate home, 
and so at last, after many promises between the 
boys and girls to “call each other up right after 
dinner,^' the Bradley family found itself alone. 

79 


8o Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

‘Well/^ said Mr. Bradley, beaming proudly upon 
his children, who seemed to him to have grown at 
least twice as large during their absence, and three 
times as handsome, ^^you thought you would come 
back to your poor old country relations, did you? 
Your mother and I,” he glanced fondly at his wife, 
‘"thought perhaps you had forgotten us by this 
time.’^ 

“We weren’t very much worried, though,” said 
Mrs. Bradley, looking so lovely in her happiness 
that Billie had to snuggle close to her to make sure 
she was real. For Mrs. Bradley was really a very 
beautiful woman, as well as a very sweet one, and 
Billie was growing more like her every day. 

“And there’s the darling old house,” breathed 
Billie happily, “looking just the same as it did when 

I left it. Mother dear, and. Dad ” here she 

reached a hand out to her father “I think I’m 

the very happiest girl in all the world.” 

For a day or two after that it seemed the best 
thing in the world just to be at home again. But 
the third day the girls began to feel a little bit rest- 
less. They were longing to be off to Lighthouse 
Island with Connie Danvers. But they had not 
heard from Connie yet, and until they did there was 
nothing to be done but get things in shape and wait. 

“Suppose she should change her mind,” remarked 
Laura dolefully on the noon of the third day. 

“Change her mind!” burst out Vi. She turned 


At Home 8i 

enquiringly to Billie. ‘‘Do you think Connie would 
do anything like that she demanded. 

“Certainly not,” was Billie’s quick reply. “Con- 
nie isn’t that kind of a girl. Besides all the arrange- 
ments have been made. It is more than likely she 
has been so busy with a number of details that she 
has simply forgotten to write or telegraph.” 

“Well, anyway, this waiting is getting on my 
nerves,” declared Laura. 

“Let’s do something to make the time pass more 
quickly,” suggested Billie. “What do you say to 
going down town for a bit of shopping?” 

“That suits me,” answered Vi. “And we might 
have some ice-cream sodas while we are down 
there.” 

This suited all of them, and soon they were on 
the way to the shops where they spent the best part 
of the afternoon. 

Then one day, over a week later, when they had 
begun to think that Connie had forgotten about 
them, a telegram came from her, saying that she 
was starting for North Bend the day after the next 
and she would be in on the six o’clock train. Would 
somebody please be there to meet her ? Her mother 
and father had gone on ahead to Lighthouse Island 
to get everything ready for the girls when they 
arrived. 

Would they be there to meet her ! Billie was so 
excited that she couldn’t eat her supper, and as 


82 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

soon as she could get away from the table she 
rushed over to Laura’s home to tell her the joyful 
news. From there the pair called up Vi and invited 
her to come and celebrate. 

And celebrate they did until it got so late that 
Mrs. Jordon had gently but firmly to put them out, 
appointing Teddy to escort the girls home. 

‘T don’t want your mothers to think I’ve kid- 
napped you,” she called after them as she and 
Laura, the latter pouting a little, stood in the door- 
way to wave good-bye to them. 

‘^ust the same, I think you might have let them 
stay a little longer,” protested Laura as they turned 
to go inside. “It’s only ten o’clock, and we had so 
much to talk about.” 

“I know,” said Mrs. Jordon, putting an arm 
lightly about her young daughter’s shoulders. ‘T 
was the same way at your age, dear. Mother had 
to send away my friends and put me to bed regu- 
larly every week or so. Now it’s my turn, that’s 
all.” 

Meanwhile Teddy and Billie had dropped Vi at 
her house and had turned down the broad, elm- 
shaded street on which stood the Bradley home. 

For some reason or other they did not talk very 
much. They did not seem to find anything to say. 
Billie had never been alone like this with Teddy 
before, and she was wondering why it made her 
tongue-tied. 


At Home 


83 

say, Billie/’ began Teddy, clearing his throat 
and looking down at her sideways — for all the 
world, as Billie thought, as if she were a mouse 
trap and might go off any minute — “is it really set- 
tled that you are going to start day after to-mor- 
row ?” 

“Yes. And isn’t it wonderful ?” cried Billie, find- 
ing her voice as the blissful prospect opened up be- 
fore her again. “I’ve never stayed at the seashore 
more than a day or two, Teddy, in my life, and now 
just think of spending the whole summer there. I 
can’t believe yet that it isn’t a dream.” 

“You want to be careful,” said Teddy, staring 
straight before him, “if you go in' bathing at all. 
There are awfully strong currents around there, you 
know.” 

“Oh, of course I know all about that,” returned 
Billie, with the air of one who could not possibly 
be taught anything. “Connie says her Uncle Tom 
knows of a darling little inlet where the water’s so 
calm it’s almost like a swimming pool. Of course 
we’ll do most of our swimming there. Oh, Teddy, 
you ought to see my new bathing suit!” She was 
rattling on rapturously when Teddy interrupted 
with a queer sort of question. 

“Who is this Uncle Tom?” he asked, still staring 
straight ahead. 

“Why, he’s Connie’s uncle, of course! The 
keeper of the light on Lighthouse Island,” an- 


84 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

swered Billie, as surprised as if he had asked her 
who Abraham Lincoln was. ^‘Connie says he’s a 
darling ” 

‘‘Is he married?” 

“Why no. That is, I don’t think so,” answered 
Biliie, knitting her brows in an effort to think 
whether Connie had ever said anything on this 
point. She had never even thought to ask if “Uncle 
Tom” was married. “Why, no, of course he can’t 
be,” she answered herself and Teddy at the same 
time. “If he was married he wouldn’t be living- in 
that old lighthouse all alone. And Connie said he 
did live there all alone. I remember that.” 

She nodded her head with satisfaction, but, 
strangely enough, Teddy did not seem to be satis- 
fied at all. He just stalked along beside her in a 
sort of gloomy silence while she glanced up at him 
now and then with a mischievous hint of a laugh 
dancing about her pretty mouth. 

“Teddy, where are you going?” she asked a min- 
ute later, as they reached the sidewalk that led to 
her house and instead of stopping Teddy stalked 
straight on. “I don’t live down at the corner you 
know.” 

Teddy turned about with a sort of sheepish 
grin and rejoined her. 

“I was just thinking,” he said as they turned up 
the Vv^alk together. 

“No wonder you went past,” said Billie mis- 


At Home 


85 

chievously. Then as they paused at the foot of the 
steps she looked up at him with an imp of laughter 
showing all the dimples about her mouth. “What 
were you thinking so hard about, Teddy?” she 
dared him. 

“I was thinking,” said Teddy, clearing his throat 
and looking anywhere but at Billie, “that I wouldn’t 
mind going down to Lighthouse Island myself !” 

Then he fled, leaving Billie to get into the house 
as best she could. But Billie did not mind. She 
was chuckling to herself and thinking how funny 
and foolish and — yes — awfully nice Teddy could 
be — sometimes. 


CHAPTER XII 


PREPARING FOR THE TRIP 

Chet and Billie were at the train to meet Connie 
when she arrived, for it had been decided almost 
without argument that Connie would spend her one 
night in North Bend with the Bradleys. 

Billie was in a fever of excitement even before 
the stream of people began to pour from the train, 
and when she saw Connie she made a wild dash for 
her that very nearly bowled over a couple of un- 
fortunate men who were in the path. 

“You darling!’’ cried Billie, hugging her friend 
rapturously. “Now I know it’s all true. I was 
just scared to death for fear something would hap- 
pen and you couldn’t get here.” 

Poor Chet tried his best to edge his way in and 
speak a word to Connie on his own account — for 
Chet liked Connie Danvers very much — but he 
could not do any more than shake hands with her 
over Billie’s shoulder and mumble one or two words 
which neither of the girls understood. 

“They won’t speak to you,” he grumbled to him- 
self as he brought up the rear with Connie’s suit- 
86 


Preparing for the Trip 87 

case and a hat box, '‘and the only time they know 
you’re alive is when they want a baggage truck or 
something. Catch me ever coming to meet one of 
Billie’s friends again.” 

He was relieved when Vi and Laura came run- 
ning up all flushed with their hurry to “spill over 
Connie” some more, as Chet disgustedly put it and 
he had a chance to slip down a side street and “beat 
it” for home. 

None of the girls even noticed that Chet had 
gone; a fact which, had he known it, would have 
made the boy still more disgusted with girls and 
everything about them. 

“Connie, you do look sweet,” Vi cried, as they 
all four tried to walk abreast along a sidewalk that 
was not very wide — the result being that Laura, 
who was on the end, walked half the time on the 
curb and the rest of the time in the gutter. “Is that 
a new hat? And, oh, I know you’ve got a new 
dress !” 

“Well I’m not the only one who looks nice,” said 
Connie, who, in spite of her prettiness, was very 
modest. 

“Oh, we are a mess,” said Laura, balancing nicely 
between the curb and the gutter. “We’ve got on 
our oldest dresses because everything we own is 
packed except the things we’re going to wear to- 
morrow.” 

“To-morrow!” That was the magic word that 


88 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

unlocked the gates and let through a flood of con- 
versation consisting of excited questions and an- 
swers and joyful exclamations that lasted until they 
reached Billie’s house. 

Billie asked Laura and Vi in, but they reluc- 
tantly refused, saying that their mothers had ex- 
pressly ordered them to be home that day in time 
for dinner. 

“We can’t come over to-night,” Vi called back 
to them, as she and Laura started on arm in arm. 
“Mother says I have to get to bed early.” 

“But we’ll see you the first thing in the morn- 
ing,” added Laura. “The very first thing, remember 
that!” 

“I’ll say so,” Billie sang back gayly, and then led 
her guest up the porch steps and into the house, 
where her mother was waiting to receive them. Mrs. 
Bradley and Connie fell in love with each other at 
first sight — which was the last thing needed to make 
Billie absolutely happy. 

They went to bed early that night, the two girls 
snuggled in Billie’s pretty bird’s-eye maple bed in 
Billie’s pretty bird’s-eye maple room. 

They went to bed, but neither of the girls had 
either the desire or the intention of going to sleep. 
They felt as if they never wanted to go to sleep 
again. 

And so they talked. They talked of the next day 


Preparing for the Trip 89 

and the vacation before them until they could not 
think of another thing to say about it. 

Then they talked of the things that had happened 
at Three Towers Hall— of the “Dill Pickles’^ and 
of Amanda Peabody and Eliza Dilks. And last, 
but not least, they talked in hushed tones of the mys- 
terious little hut in the woods and the strange man 
who lived there and wove fern baskets and other 
things for a living. 

By the time they had reached Miss Arbuckle and 
the finding of her album in the woods they were 
feeling delightfully thrilly and farther away from 
sleep than ever. 

“It really must be a mystery,” Connie was say- 
ing, snuggling deeper into the covers and staring at 
Billie’s pretty face and tousled hair weirdly illumined 
by the pale moonlight that sifted through the win- 
dow, when there came a tap on the door. And right 
upon the tap came Mrs. Bradley, wearing a loose 
robe that made her look mysteriously lovely in the 
dim light. She sat down on the edge of the bed 
and regarded the girls smilingly. 

“It’s twelve o’clock,” she said, and they stared 
at her unbelievingly. “Twelve o’clock,” she re- 
peated relentlessly, “and time for girls who have 
to be up early in the morning to be asleep.” 

“But we’re not sleepy,” protested Billie. 

“Not a bit,” added Connie. 

Mrs. Bradley rose decidedly. 


90 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

'Then it’s time you were,” she said, adding, with 
a little laugh: “If I hear a sound in here ten min- 
utes from now, Bm coming after you with a broom- 
stick. Remember,” she added, laughing back at 
them from the doorway, “I give you just ten min- 
utes.” 

“I think you’ve got just the loveliest mother,” 
sighed Connie, as she turned over obediently with 
her back to Billie; “but I’m sure I never can go to 
sleep.” 

Five minutes passed, and the girls who could 
“never go to sleep,” felt their eyelids grow heavy 
and a delicious drowsiness steal over them. Once 
Connie roused herself enough to say sleepily: “We’ll 
just have to form that Detective Club, Billie, you 
know.” 

“Yes,” said Billie, already half in the land of 
dreams. “When we — have — the time — good night, 
Connie ” 

“Good night, Bil-lie ” 

And the next they knew it was morning! And ' 
such a glorious morning had never dawned before — 
of that they were sure. 

Fat Deborah, nicknamed “Debbie,” who had been 
the cook in the Bradley family for years, and who 
thought that gave her the right to tell the whole 
family what was expected of them, from Billie up 
to Mr. Bradley himself, cooked them a breakfast 


91 


Preparing for the Trip 

of ham and eggs and cereal and toast and corn 
bread, grumbling to herself all the time. 

For Debbie did not approve at all of “the young 
folks scamperin’ off jes’ so soon as dey gets back 
home agin.” 

“Scand’lous, I calls it,” Debbie confided to the 
pan of com bread she was busily cutting into golden 
brown pieces. “Don’ know what Miz Bradley ’lows 
she’s thinkin’ on, nohow. But these am scand’lous 
days — they sho is.” Whereupon she put on a white 
apron and her dignity and marched into the dining 
room. 

Yet in spite of her disapproval, Debbie gave the 
young “scalawags” the best breakfast she could 
make, and from the way the young “scalawags” 
did justice to it, one might have thought they did 
not expect to get any more to eat for a week at 
least. 

Then they went upstairs to pack bags with the 
last minute things. Billie and Connie went over 
the whole list backward to be sure they had not 
forgotten a toothbrush “or something.” To them it 
was a very important list. 

And when everything was done and their hats 
and coats on, they found to their dismay that they 
still had three-quarters of an hour to wait for the 
train. 

“Goodness, why did Mother call us so early!” 
wailed Billie, sitting down on her suitcase and star- 


92 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

ing at Connie. “I can do anything but wait. But 
that I just can’t do!” 

‘‘Couldn’t we go over and call for Laura and 
yi?” Connie suggested. 

“My, they won’t be up yet,” said Billie hysteric- 
ally, then chuckled at Connie’s look of dismay. “I 
didn’t mean quite that,” she said. “But Vi is 
always late.” 

“Then I know we’d better go over !” said Connie, 
going over and giving her hat one last little pat be- 
fore the mirror. 

But Billie had walked over to the window, and 
now she called out excitedly. 

“Here they come now,” she reported, adding 
with a chuckle : “And there’s poor Teddy in the bear 
carrying two suitcases and something that looks 
like a lunch box. Come on, let’s go down.” 

And down they went, taking two steps at a time. 
Billie opened the door just as the two girls and 
Teddy came up the steps. Chet, who had run out, 
attracted by the noise, and was looking over Billie’s 
shoulder, caught sight of Teddy and the load he 
carried and emitted a whoop of joy. 

“Hello, old moving van !” he called. “So they’ve 
got you doing it too, have they?” 

Teddie set his load down on the steps and mopped 
his perspiring brow. 

“Yes. And you’d better get busy yourself,” he 
retorted, adding as Chet seemed about to protest: 


Preparing for the Trip 93 

‘‘Fve got some good news. Get your duds and Fll 
tell it to you on the way to the station.” 

That got Chet started in a hurry, and a few min- 
utes later the young folks had said a loving good- 
bye to Mr. and Mrs. Bradley, and were off, bag and 
baggage, for the station. 

The girls’ trunks had been sent down the day 
before, so that all they had to do was to check them 
at the station. Connie, of course, had had her 
trunk checked right through to the station nearest 
their destination. 

Chet clamored for Teddy’s news, and excitedly 
Teddy showed him the letter from Paul Martinson 
saying that the ‘^old boat” would be ready to sail 
in a few days. 

‘‘Whoop !” cried Chet joyfully, trying to wave a 
suitcase in the air and nearly dropping it on his toe 
instead. “Say, girls, you may see us even before 
you hoped to.” 

“Hoped to!” sniffed Laura. “Don’t you hate 
yourself?” 

“Oh, Fm so glad !” cried Billie, her eyes shining. 
“It will be a lark to have you boys drop in on us 
some morning when we don’t expect you. Oh, it’s 
just grand! We’ll be sure to be watching for all 
of you.” 

The rejoicing was cut short by the arrival of the 
train a few minutes later. The girls scurried ex- 


94 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

citedly on board, the boys handing in their suit- 
cases after them. 

As the train started to move Teddy ran along the 
platform with it and suddenly thrust something into 
Billie’s hand. 

^Look out for those currents/’ he said. “They’re 
awfully dangerous.” 

As he dropped back to join Chet, Billie looked 
down at the thing in her hand. It was a package of 
chocolate. 


CHAPTER XIII 


PLEASURE DRAWS NEAR 

As SHE looked, a flush stole over Billie’s face and 
she tried hastily to hide the chocolate in the pocket 
of her suit before the girls could see it. 

She would have succeeded if Vi had not acci- 
dentally touched her elbow at that moment, knock- 
ing the package of chocolate from her hand and 
into the aisle of the car where it lay, face up, accus- 
ingly. 

Billie stretched out an eager hand for it, but 
Laura was just before her. 

“Aha !” she cried triumphantly, waving the little 
brown rectangle aloft. “Candy! Where’d you get 
it, Billie Bradley?” She turned swiftly upon Billie, 
whose face was the color of a particularly gorgeous 
beet. Vi and Connie looked on delightedly. 

“Goodness ! anybody would think it was a crime 
to have candy,” cried Billie indignantly. “You give 

it to me, Laura, or ” She made a grab for her 

property, but Laura snatched it back out of her 
reach. 

“No, you don’t,” she said, putting her hands 


95 


g6 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

behind her determinedly. “Not till you tell us where 
you got it’^ 

“Well I’m not going to,” said Billie crossly. “It’s 
none of your business.” And she turned away and 
looked steadily out of the window. 

“Give it back to her, Laura,” begged Vi. “It 
isn’t fair to tease her so.” 

“Well then, she shouldn’t tease so beautifully,” 
Laura retorted, as, relenting, she slipped Teddy’s 
gift back into Billie’s pocket. 

At that moment they were startled by a fearful 
racket — a sound as if all the South Sea pirates that 
had ever been born had gathered together and were 
all quarreling at once. 

There was a great craning of necks as startled 
passengers tried to see what it was all about and 
the girls fairly jumped from their seats — for the 
racket sounded in their very ears. 

Across the aisle from them there was a parrot — a 
great green and red parrot that at that moment was 
hanging by its claws to the roof of its cage and was 
still emitting the raucous squawks that sounded like 
the talking of a hundred pirates all rolled into one. 

An elderly woman who looked as if she might 
be a spinster of the type generally known as “old 
maid” was doing her best to silence the bird while 
she fished wildly in her bag for something. 

She found what she was looking for — a heavy 
black cloth, and, with a sigh of relief, flung it across 


Pleasure Draws Near 97 

the cage. Immediately the parrot’s uproar subsided 
to a muttering and a moment later stopped alto- 
gether. 

Passengers who had craned their necks dropped 
back in their seats chuckling, picked up magazines 
or papers or whatever they had been reading where 
they had left off, and peace settled over the car 
again. For all save the girls, that is. 

For the elderly woman — who most certainly was 
an old maid — had been terribly embarrassed over 
the bird’s outbreak and began explaining to the girls 
how she happened to have it in her possession, what 
troubles she had already had with it, how glad she 
would be when she delivered the bird to her brother, 
who was its rightful owner, and so on until the 
girls became desperate enough to throw things at 
her. 

^ffsn’t there some way we can stop her!” whis- 
pered Vi in Connie’s ear, while Billie and Laura 
were listening to the woman’s chatter with forced 
smiles and polite ‘'yeses and nos.” “If I have to 
listen to that voice another minute I’ll scream — I 
know I shall.” 

“The only way to stop her that I can think of,” 
Connie whispered back, “would be to take the cover 
off the parrot’s cage. He would drown out most 
anybody.” 

This kept up practically all morning with the 
owner of the parrot talking on tirelessly and the 


98 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

girls trying to listen politely until lunch time came. 

Thankfully they made their way through the 
swaying train to the dining car and sat themselves 
gratefully down at a little table set for four. 

“Thank goodness we’ve escaped,” sighed Billie, 
as her eyes wandered eagerly down the bill of fare, 
for Billie was very hungry. “What will you have, 
girls? I could eat everything on the card without 
stopping to breathe.” 

When they returned to their car after lunch they 
found to their relief that the talkative old woman 
was gathering up her things as if about to change 
cars at the junction — which was the next stop. 

She did get out at the junction, parrot and all, 
and the girls fairly hugged each other in their de- 
light. 

“Poor old thing,” said Billie as the train swung 
out from the station and the parrot cage disap- 
peared. “I wonder,” she added after a moment, 
“if I’ll ever get like that.” 

“You!” scoffed Vi, with a fond glance at Billie’s 
lovely face. “Yes, you look a lot like an old maid.” 

“And didn’t Teddy give her candy this morn- 
ing?” added Laura, with a wicked glance at Billie, 
who said not a word, but stared steadily out of the 
window. 

They bought magazines and tried to read them, 
but finally gave up the attempt. What was the use 
of reading about other people’s adventures when a 


Pleasure Draws Near 


99 

far more thrilling one was in store for them at 
Lighthouse Island? 

Billie said something like this, but Connie shook 
her head doubtfully. 

‘‘I don’t know how we’re going to have any ad- 
ventures,” she said. ‘‘There isn’t so very much to 
do besides swimming and rowing in Uncle Tom’s 
rowboat ” 

“Goodness, isn’t that enough?” said Billie, turn- 
ing on her. “Why, just being at the seashore is an 
adventure. Just think, I’ve never in my life been 
inside a really truly lighthouse. It’s going to be' 
just wonderful, Connie.” 

“And aren’t the boys coming in their motor boat, 
too?” added Vi eagerly. “Why, they will probably 
take us for a sail around the point and everything. 
Connie, how can you say we’re not going to have 
any adventures?” 

Connie laughed. 

“All right,” she said. “Don’t shoot. I’ll take it 
all back. And there’s Uncle Tom’s clam chowder,” 
she added. “People come from all over just to 
taste it.” 

“What time is it, Laura?” asked Billie, turning 
from the window suddenly and tapping nervously 
on the window sill. “It won’t take us very much 
longer to get there, will it?” 

“Only three hours,” answered Laura, consulting 
her wrist watch. 


lOO Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

^‘Only three hours!’' groaned Billie. “And I 
thought we were nearly there.” 

There was silence for a little while after that 
while the girls took up their magazines again and 
turned the pages listlessly. At the end of another 
half hour they gave up the attempt entirely and 
leaned their heads wearily against the backs of the 
seats, fixing their eyes upon the ever-changing 
scenery that fled past them. 

“Are we going to form our Detective Club?” 
asked Connie suddenly out of the silence. 

The girls stared at her a minute as if she had 
roused them out of sleep. 

“For goodness sake, what made you think of that 
now?” asked Laura a little peevishly. “I’m so tired 
I don’t want to form clubs or anything else. All I 
want is to get out somewhere where I can stretch my 
legs, get some supper, and go to bed. I’m dead.” 

“You’re making lots of noise for a dead one,” 
chuckled Billie, and Laura made a face at her. 

“But no one’s answered my question,” broke in 
Connie plaintively. “I thought you girls loved mys- 
teries and things.” 

“Well, who says we don’t?” cried Laura. “Just 
show me a good live mystery and I’ll forget I’m all 
tied up in knots and everything.” 

“Just listen to her!” exclaimed Connie indig- 
nantly. “Do you mean to say you’ve forgotten that 
we have a mystery already ?” 


Pleasure Draws Near loi 

“Oh — that/’ said Laura slowly, while a light be- 
gan to dawn. “Yes, I did forget about it; we’ve 
been so busy getting ready and everything.” 

“Well, I haven’t forgotten about it,” said Billie, 
sitting up suddenly, while her cheeks began to glow 
pink. “And the more I think about it, the funnier 
it seems to me.” 

“What?” asked Vi. 

“Oh, everything,” answered Billie, getting more 
excited as she spoke. “Hugo Billings in the first 
place. And then finding Miss Arbuckle’s album in 
the woods. And the children: Girls, Fm just sure 
they are mysteries — and real ones, too.” 


CHAPTER XIV 


THE LIGHT ON LIGHTHOUSE ISLAND 

Laura looked faintly excited for a minute, then 
she leaned back wearily in her seat again. 

“Pm just as sure as you are, Billie, that there’s 
something funny about it,” she said. ^‘But if we 
really had wanted to solve the mystery, we should 
have stayed at Three Towers. The first thing they 
do in detective stories is to shadow the people they 
suspect. And how can we do that. I’d like to know, 
when we’re running straight away from them?” 

This was very good reasoning. Even Billie and 
Connie had to admit that, and they began to look 
worried. 

“Perhaps I shouldn’t have asked you girls to 
visit me. Then you might have stayed at Three 
Towers for the summer and solved the mystery. 
Now I’ve spoiled all the fun ” 

“Connie ! don’t be such an absolute goose,” cried 
Billie, putting a hand over Connie’s mouth. “Do 
you suppose we’d have missed this for anything?” 

“Anyway,” added Vi hopefully, “we may find 
some more mysteries on Lighthouse Island.” 


102 


The Light on Lighthouse Island 103 

“Humph,” grumbled Laura, who was feeling 
tired and cross, “you talk as if mysteries were just 
hanging around loose begging to be found.” 

“Well, I think maybe we’ll manage to enjoy our- 
selves, even without mysteries,” said Billie gayly. 
Nevertheless, she could not help thinking to her- 
self : “Oh, dear, I do wish there was some way 
I could find out about Miss Arbuckle and those 
lovely children and poor lonely, sad Hugo Billings. 
I should like to help if I only knew how!” 

“Billie, wake up! Wake up — it’s time to get off!” 

She must have been very sound asleep because it 
was several seconds before she fought her way 
through a sea of unconsciousness and opened heavy 
eyes upon a scene of confusion. 

“What’s the matter?” she asked sleepily, but 
some one, she thought it was Laura, shook her im- 
patiently, and some one else — she was wide awake 
enough now to be sure this was Vi — put a hat on 
her head and pushed it so far over her eyes that 
she temporarily went blind again. 

“For goodness sake, can’t you put it on straight?” 
she demanded indignantly, pushing the hat back 
where it belonged. “What do you think you’re 
doing anyway?” 

A little anger was the best thing that could have 
come to Billie. It was about the only thing in the 
world that would have gotten her wide awake just 
then. And it was very necessary that she should 


104 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

be wide awake, for the train was just drawing into 
the station where they were to get off to take the 
boat to Lighthouse Island. 

She took the bag thrust into her hands by Laura, 
and the girls hurried out into the aisle that was 
crowded with people. A minute more, and they 
found themselves on a platforni down which people 
hurried and porters rolled their baggage trucks and 
where every one seemed intent upon making as 
much noise as possible. 

Billie and Laura and Vi felt very much bewil- 
dered, for they had never done any traveling except 
in the company of some older person; but with a 
confidence that surprised them, Connie took com- 
mand of the situation. For Connie had traveled 
this route several times, and everything about it 
was familiar to her. 

‘‘Give me your trunk checks,’’ she ordered, add- 
ing, as the girls obediently fumbled in their pocket- 
books : “We’ll have to hustle if we want to get our 
trunks straightened out and get on board ourselves 
before the boat starts. What’s the matter, Vi, you 
haven’t lost your check, have you?” 

For one terrible minute Vi had been afraid she 
had done just this, but now, with a sigh of relief, 
she produced the check and handed it over to 
Connie. 

“My, but that was a narrow escape,” she mur- 


The Light on Lighthouse Island 105 

mured, as they hurried down the crowded plat- 
form. 

The boat that plied from the mainland to Light- 
house Island and one or two more small islands 
scattered about near the coast was a small but tidy 
little vessel that was really capable of better speed 
than most people gave her credit for. She was 
painted a sort of dingy white, and large black let- 
ters along her bow proclaimed her to be none other 
than the Mary Ann. 

And now as the girls, with several other pas- 
sengers, stepped on board and felt the cool breeze 
upon their faces they breathed deep of the salty air 
and gazed wonderingly out over the majestic ocean 
rolling on and on in unbroken swells toward the 
distant horizon. 

Gone was all the fatigue of the long train ride. 
They forgot that their lungs were full of soft coal 
dirt, that their hands were grimy, and their faces, 
too. They were completely under the spell of that 
great, mysterious tyrant — the ocean. 

“Isn’t this grand !” 

“Just smell the salt air!” 

“Makes you feel braced up already,” came from 
Billie, who had been filling her lungs to the utmost. 
“Oh, girls! Lm just crazy to jump in and have 
a swim.” 

“I’m with you on that,” broke out Vi. “Oh, I’m 
sure we’re going to have just the best times ever!” 


io6 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

There was a fair-sized crowd to get aboard, made 
up partly of natives and partly of city folks. The 
passengers were followed by a number of trunks 
and a small amount of freight. 

“Evidently we’re not the only ones to take this 
trip,” remarked Billie, as she noted the people com- 
ing on board the Mary Ann. 

“A number of these people must live on the islands 
the year around,” said Laura. 

“My, how lonely it must be on this coast during 
the winter months,” said Billie. “Think of being 
out on one of those islands in a howling snow- 
storm !” 

“I wonder how they get anything to eat during 
those times?” questioned Vi. 

“I presume they keep stuff on hand,” answered 
Billie. 

With a sharp toot of her whistle the boat moved 
out from the dock, made her way carefully among 
the numerous other craft in the harbor, and finally 
nosed her way out into the water of the channel. 

“O — oh,” breathed Vi, softly. “It’s even more 
wonderful than I thought it would be. I’d like to 
go sailing on and on like this forever.’^ 

“Well, I wouldn’t,” said Laura practically. “Not 
without any supper. I’m getting a perfectly awful 
appetite.” 

“It will be worse than that after you’ve been here 
a little while,” laughed Connie. “Mother says that 


The Light on Lighthouse Island 107 

it seems as if she never can give me enough to eat 
when we come out to the seashore, so she has given 
up trying/' 

‘'Your poor mother!" said Billie dolefully. “And 
now she has four of us I" 

“I know," chuckled Connie. “Mother was worry- 
ing a little about that — as to how she could keep 
four famished wolves fed at one time. But Uncle 
Tom said he’d help her out." 

“Your Uncle Tom," Vi repeated wonderingly. 
“Can he cook?" 

“Of course," said Connie, looking at her as if she 
had asked if the world was square. “Didn’t I tell 
you about his clam chowder?" 

“Oh," said Vi thoughtfully, while something 
within her began to cry out for a sample of that 
clam chowder. “Oh yes, I remember." 

“Connie, you’re cruel," moaned Laura. “Can’t 
you talk of something besides clam chowder when 
you know I’m starving to death? Goodness, I can 
almost smell it." 

“That’s the clams you smell," chuckled Connie. 
“They always have some on board the Mary Ann 
to sell to the islanders — if they haven’t the sense to 
catch them themselves. We never need to buy any," 
she added, proudly. “Uncle Tom keeps us supplied 
with all we want. Look I" she cried suddenly, point- 
ing to a small island which loomed directly ahead of 
them, looking in the grey mist of evening like only 


io8 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

a darker shadow against the shifting background. 
“That’s our island — see? And there’s the light,” 
she added, as a sudden beacon flashed out at them, 
sending a ruddy light out over the dark water. 

“Oh, isn’t it beautiful!” cried Billie rapturously. 
“Just think what it must mean to the ships out at 
sea — that friendly light, beckoning to them- ” 

“No, it doesn’t — beckon, I mean,” said Connie 
decidedly. “That’s just what it isn’t for. It’s to 
warn them to keep away or they’ll be sorry.” 

“Is there so much danger ?” asked Laura eagerly. 

“I should say there is,” Connie answered gravely. 
“In a storm especially. You see, the water is very 
shallow around here and if a big ship runs in too 
close to shore she’s apt to get on a shoal. That isn’t 
so bad in clear weather — although a ship did get 
stuck on the shoal here not so very long ago and 
she was pretty much damaged when they got her 
off. But in a storm ” 

“Yes,” cried Billie impatiently. 

“Why, Uncle Tom says,” Connie was very seri- 
ous, “that if a ship were driven upon the shoal in a 
gale — and we have terrible storms around here — it 
would probably come with such force that its bot- 
tom would be pretty nearly crushed in and the peo- 
ple on board might die before any one could get out 
there to rescue them.” 

“Oh, Connie, how dreadful!” cried Vi. Laura 
and Billie only stared at the lighthouse tower as 


The Light on Lighthouse Island 109 

though fascinated, while the little boat came steadily 
nearer to it. 

“Has anything like that ever happened here, Con- 
nie?” asked Laura in an awed voice. 

“No,” said Connie. “There was a terrible wreck 
here a long time ago — before they built the light- 
house. But Uncle Tom says no one will ever know 
just how many lives have been saved because of the 
good old light. To hear him talk to it you would 
think it was alive.” 

“It is !” cried Billie, pointing excitedly as the 
great white globe that held the light swung slowly 
around toward them. “Didn’t you see that? It 
winked at us !” 


CHAPTER XV 


Connie’s mother 

The steamer scraped against the dock and the 
girls straightened their hats, picked up their suit- 
cases, and started down the narrow winding stairs 
that led to the lower deck. 

Connie led the way as she had done ever since 
they had left North Bend. She scrambled quickly 
out upon the pier and the chums, following more 
slowly, were in time to see Connie rapturously em- 
brace first a lady and then a gentleman standing 
near by. 

‘Well, well !” a deep masculine voice was saying, 
“it seems mighty good to see our girl again. But 
where are the others?” 

Connie turned eagerly to the girls. 

“This is my mother and father, Billie and Laura 
and Vi,” she said, with a proud wave of her hand 
toward her smiling parents, who came forward and 
greeted the girls cordially. 

“It’s too dark to see your faces,” Mrs. Danvers 
said. “But Connie has described you to us so many 


no 


Connie’s Mother 


III 


times that it isn’t at all necessary. I’m sure I know- 
just exactly what you look like.” 

'"Oh, but they’re three times as nice as anything 
I’ve said about them,” Connie was protesting when 
her father, who had been conversing with the cap- 
tain of the Mary Ann, stepped up to them. 

“If you young ladies will give me your checks,” 
he said — and the girls knew they were going to love 
him because his voice sounded so kind — “I’ll attend 
to your trunks and you can go on up to the house.” 

The girls produced their checks, Mr. Danvers 
went back to the captain, and Mrs. Danvers and 
the girls started off in high spirits toward the bunga- 
low. 

“Are you very tired ?” Mrs. Danvers asked them, ^ 
and the turn of her head as she looked at them made 
the girls think of some pert, plump, cheery little 
robin. 

It was really getting very dark, and the girls could 
not make out what she looked like, but they could 
see that she was small and graceful and her voice — 
well, her voice had a gay lilt that made one want to 
laugh even though all she said was “what a pleasant 
day it is.” ISTo wonder, with that father and mother, 
Connie was such a darling. 

“Why, no, we’re not very tired,” Billie said in 
answer to Mrs. Danvers’ question. “We were on 
the train, but the minute we got on board the boat 
we seemed to forget all about it. It’s this beautiful 


1 12 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

salt air, I suppose,^’ and she sniffed happily at the 
soft, salt laden breeze that came wandering up from 
the sea. 

^^Of course it’s the air,” agreed Mrs. Danvers 
gayly. “The air does all sorts of wonderful things 
to us. You just wait a few days and see.” 

They were walking along a rough boardwalk set 
quite a way back from the water’s edge so that there 
was a white stretch of beach between it and the first 
thin line of lapping waves. 

“Why, look at the boardwalk!” cried Laura, in 
wonder. 

“You didn’t say anything about a boardwalk 
down here, Connie,” added Vi. “You’re really right 
up to date, aren’t you?” 

“What did you suppose?” put in Billie. “That 
Lighthouse Island was in the backwoods and had 
no improvements?” And she laughed gayly. 

“Well, I know that very few of the islands on 
this coast have boardwalks,” defended Laura. “Most 
of them have the roughest kind of stony paths.” 

“You are right, there,” said Connie. “I remember 
only too well when I was on Chatter Island we had 
to climb over the rocks all the way, and one day I 
twisted my ankle most dreadfully — so badly, in fact, 
that I was laid up for three days while all the other 
girls were having the best time ever.” 

“I know what I’d do on a real dark night,” re- 
marked Billie dryly. “If I couldn’t see where I was 


Connie’s Mother 


113 


stepping, Fd take my chances and walk in the sand/^ 

“I do that myself sometimes,” answered Connie. 

Several bungalows dotted the rather barren land- 
scape, for Lighthouse Island was an ideal spot for 
a summer home — that is if one liked the seashore. 

But the girls were not so much interested in what 
was on the island as they were in what was beyond 
it. The ocean — the great dark, mysterious ocean 
drew their eyes irresistibly and set their minds to 
wandering. And as the days passed they were to 
feel the spell of it more and more. 

‘‘Here we are,” Mrs. Danvers said cheerily, and 
with an effort the girls brought their thoughts back 
to the present. 

Mrs. Danvers had turned from the main board- 
walk down another that led to a bungalow whose 
every window was cheerfully and invitingly lighted. 

“Be careful where you step,” Mrs. Danvers called 
back to them, and the girls saw that she was pick- 
ing her steps very carefully. “There are two or 
three boards missing, and I can’t get Mr. Danvers 
to do the repairing. He spends whole days,” she 
added, turning plaintively to Connie, “up in that 
old lighthouse just talking to your Uncle Tom. I 
don’t know whether it’s your Uncle Tom’s con- 
versation he finds so fascinating or his clam chow- 
der.” 

She opened the door as she spoke and the girls 
had a vision of a comfortable, gayly lighted room 


1 14 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

all wicker chairs and chintz cushions and chintz 
hangings, a room pretty and cozy, a room that 
seemed to be beckoning and inviting the girls to 
come in and make themselves at home. 

Which they did — immediately. All except Billie, 
who stepped back a moment and gazed off through 
the dusk to the light in the lighthouse tower glow- 
ing its warning to the travelers over the dark high- 
ways of the sea. 

“I love it,’^ she said, surprising herself by her 
fervor. “It looks so bright and brave and lonely.'’ 

Then she stepped in after the others and almost 
ran into Connie, who was coming back to get her. 

“What were you doing all by yourself out there 
in the dark?" she asked accusingly. “We thought 
you had run away or something." 

“Goodness, where would I run to?" asked Billie, 
as they went upstairs together arm in arm. “There’s 
no place to run accept into the ocean, and Td rather 
wait for that till I have my bathing suit on." 

They found Mrs. Danvers and Laura and Vi in a 
large room as pretty and comfortable as the room 
downstairs, though not quite so elaborate. Laura 
and Vi were busily engaged in making themselves 
entirely at home. 

Laura had her hat off and was fixing her hair in 
front of a mirror and Vi was hanging up her coat in 
the closet. 

^‘You see there’s a connecting door between these 


Connie’s Mother 


115 

two rooms,” Mrs. Danvers said in her pleasant 
voice; “so that you girls can feel almost as if you 
were in one room.” 

Then as she caught sight of Billie and Connie in 
the doorway she beckoned to them and disappeared 
into the next room, and with a laughing word to 
Laura and Vi they followed her. 

This was the room that she and Connie were to 
occupy, Billie found, and she looked about her at 
the handsome mahogany furniture and dainty dress- 
ing table fixings with interest. 

But she was even more interested in seeing what 
Connie’s mother looked like in the light. She was 
not a bit disappointed, for Mrs. Danvers’ looks en- 
tirely matched her voice. 

Her eyes were a wide laughing hazel, set far apart 
and fringed with dark lashes. Her hair, for she had 
not worn a hat, was a soft brown, and the night 
wind had whipped a pretty color into her face. 

“She is awfully pretty. Not as pretty as my 
mother,” Billie thought loyally, “but awfully pretty 
just the same.” 

Billie must have been staring more than she 
knew, for suddenly Mrs. Danvers — it seemed ab- 
surd to call her “Mrs,” she looked so like a girl — 
turned upon her and took her laughingly by the 
shoulders. 

“So you’re Billie Bradley,” she said, her hazel 
eyes searching Billie’s brown ones. “Connie said 


Ii6 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

you were the most popular girl at Three Towers 
and that all the girls loved you. I can’t say that I 
blame them, my dear,” giving Billie’s flushed cheek 
a gay little pat. “I’m not very sure but what I may 

do it myself. Now here ” And she went on 

to give directions while Billie followed her with 
wondering eyes. How could a woman who was old 
enough to be Connie’s mother look so absolutely and 
entirely like a girl of twenty? She was not even 
dignified like most of the mothers Billie knew^ — 
she did not even try to be. Connie treated her as 
she would an older and much loved sister. One 
only needed to be with them three minutes to see 
that mother and daughter adored each other and 
were the very best chums in the world. And right 
then and there Billie began adoring too. 

“Now I’ll run downstairs and get something on 
the table for you girls to eat, for I know you must 
be starving,” said Mrs. Danvers, or rather “Con- 
nie’s mother,” as Billie called her from that day on. 
“Don’t stop to fix up, girls, for there won’t be a 
soul here to-night but Daddy and me — and we don’t 
care. Hurry now. If you are not downstairs by 
the time I have dinner on the table I’ll eat it all my- 
self, every bit.” With that she was gone into the 
next room, leaving a trail of laughter behind her 
that made Billie’s heart laugh in sympathy. 

“Connie,” she said, sitting down on the edge of 
the bed and regarding her chum soberly as she 


Connie’s Mother 


117 

opened her bag and drew out a brush and comb, 
‘‘Fm simply crazy about your mother. She’s so 
young and pretty and — and — happy. Does she ever 
do anything but laugh ?” 

‘^Not often,” said Connie, adding with a little 
chuckle: /‘But when she does stop laughing you’d 
better look out for ‘breakers ahead,’ as Uncle Tom 
says. Mother’s French you know, and she has a 
temper — about once a year. But for goodness sake, 
stop talking, Billie, and get ready. You’ve got a 
patch of dirt under one eye. What’s that I smell? 
It’s clam chowder!” 

“Clam chowder,” repeated Billie weakly. “Are 
you sure it’s clam chowder, Connie ?” 

“Yes, clam chowder,” repeated Connie firmly. 


CHAPTER XVI 


CLAM CHOWDER AND SALT AIR 

Connie was right, gloriously right. It was clam 
chowder — the kind of clam chowder one dreams 
about — come true. Uncle Tom had made it just 
that very afternoon and had brought it over in a 
huge bucket that was always used for such occa- 
sions. 

The girls ate and ate and ate and then ate some 
more until they were completely satisfied with life 
and were feeling contented and beautifully, won- 
derfully drowsy. 

Connie’s mother had served them other things 
beside clam chowder. There were pork chops and 
apple sauce, there were muffins and honey and apple 
pie, and when they had finished, the once full table 
looked as if a swarm of locusts had been at it. 

And all the time Connie’s mother had watched 
them with wide, delighted eyes and Connie’s father 
had lounged back in his chair, smoking a cigar and 
looking on with an indulgent smile. 

Mr. Danvers, with the aid of a couple of men 
from the dock had got the girls’ trunks up to the 

ii8 


Clam Chowder and Salt Air 119 

house and into the rooms they were going to occupy 
for the summer. 

And now, having done his duty, he had sauntered 
into the dining room to get acquainted with the girls 
and smoke a cigar. He and Mrs. Danvers had had 
their dinner earlier, because, as Mrs. Danvers laugh- 
ingly explained, ‘^she had been famished and could 
not wait,” so that now there was nothing to do but 
watch the girls enjoy themselves. 

The dining room was like all the other rooms in 
the cottage, cheerful and cozy and tastefully fur- 
nished, and as the girls looked about them happily 
they felt that they must have known the house and 
its owners all their lives. 

Mr. Danvers was many years older than his wife, 
and he looked even older than he was. But he was 
a handsome man, and the touch of gray in the hair 
at his temples only made him look more distin- 
guished. He adored his wife, and his eyes followed 
her wherever she went. 

‘'As if any one could blame him for that,” 
thought Billie, as Mrs. Danvers slipped a second 
piece of apple pie on her plate. 

“My gracious ! do you expect me to eat a second 
piece of pie?” cried Billie, glancing up at Mrs. 
Danvers, with a smile. 

“A second piece of pie isn’t very much for a 
young girl with a healthy appetite,” returned the 
lady of the bungalow. 


120 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

“You give her too much pie, and she’ll be dream- 
ing of all sorts of things,” remonstrated Vi. 

“Why, Vi ! To talk that way when you are eat- 
ing a second piece yourself!” broke in Laura. 

“If we dream, perhaps we’ll all dream together, 
so what’s the difference?” remarked Billie; and at 
this there was a laugh in which even Mr. Danvers 
joined. 

After dinner Connie’s mother sent them up to 
their rooms, saying that she knew they must be tired 
to death and should go to bed early so they could 
get up to see the sun rise the next morning. 

They did not protest very much, for they were 
tired and the prospect of bed was very alluring. 
To-morrow — well, to-morrow they would go ex- 
ploring. Perhaps they might even be permitted to 
visit the lighthouse and Uncle Tom. Speaking of 
Uncle Tom made Billie think of the clam chowder, 
and although she could not have eaten another scrap 
if she had tried, her mouth watered at the memory. 

The girls left the connecting door open between 
the two rooms so that they could talk to each other 
if they wanted to, but they did not do very much 
talking that night. 

“Oh, this feels good,” sighed Billie, as Connie 
turned down the covers and she crawled thankfully 
into bed. “I didn’t know I was so awfully tired. 
And that dinner I Connie, does your mother always 
serve dinners like that?” 


Clam Chowder and Salt Air 12 1 

“Yes/’ said Connie, flinging her thick braid over 
her shoulder and crossing the room to turn out the 
light. “Mother’s an awfully good cook, and al- 
though we have a maid to do the heavy work 
Mother does all the cooking herself.” 

“Well,” said Billie, snuggling down under the 
covers luxuriously as Connie joined her, “I’m 
mighty glad I came.” 

“Even if we don’t solve any mysteries?” asked 
Connie, a trifle wistfully. 

Billie turned over and tried to see her face, a 
thing impossible, of course, in the dark. 

“What a foolish thing to say,” she cried. “I’ll 
shake you, Connie Danvers, if you ever say a thing 
like that again. We could have stayed at Three 
Towers if we had wanted to solve mysteries more 
than we wanted to come here, couldn’t we?” 

“Y — yes,” said Connie doubtfullv. “Only, of 
course, we didn’t know anything about the mystery 
when I asked you to come here. So you couldn’t 
have backed out very well, even if you had wanted 
to.” 

Billie turned over impatiently and caught Connie 
by the shoulder. 

“Connie Danvers!” she cried, “now I know you 
want to be shaken. Are you really trying to say 
that we didn’t want to come with you and only 
did it to please you?” 

“No,” said Connie, with a shake of her head. 


122 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

course I didn’t mean just that. Just the same,” 
she added longingly, “I am awfully anxious to find 
out about Miss Arbuckle and her album and — that 
strange man — everything.” 

It was then that a horrible thought struck Billie, 
and it was so horrible that it sat her straight up 
in bed. 

“Connie — I just thought — could it — were you 
sorry you asked us to come ?” she stammered. 
“Would you rather have stayed at Three Towers 
yourself ?” 

For a minute there was silence and Billie knew 
that Connie was staring through the dark at her 
in absolute amazement. 

“You perfectly silly goose,” said Connie then, 
her bewilderment changing to indignation. “Now 
I know who wants to be shaken. Lie down here, 
Billie, and see if you can act sensibly. Sorry I 
asked you !” she exploded indignantly. “Why, who 
ever heard of such a thing!” 

“But you said you wanted to solve the mystery 
— if there is one,” Billie reminded her, lying down 
again. 

“Well, of course I do. So do all the rest of 
you,” Connie shot back. “But as to being sorry 

I asked you, why. I’ve a good mind ” She rose 

threateningly in the bed and Billie put out a plead- 
ing hand, saying with a chuckle: 


Clam Chowder and Salt Air 123 

“Please don’t kill me or do whatever you were 
gbing to. I take it all back.” 

“I should say you’d better!” sputtered Connie, 
coming down with a thump in the bed. 

“What are you girls raving about?” asked a 
sleepy voice from the next room that they recog- 
nized as Vi’s. “Can’t you keep still and let a fel- 
low sleep? Laura’s snoring already.” 

“Oh, I am not!” came indignantly from Laura. 
“I never snore !” 

“How do you know?” asked Vi with interest. 

“Know !” sputtered Laura. “Why, I don’t know 
how I know, but I do know.” 

“Perhaps you are like an aunt of mine,” Vi’s 
voice came lazily back. “She says she knows she 
never snores because she stayed awake all night 
once just to see if she did.” 

Billie and Connie chuckled, which would have 
made Laura more indignant if she had not been so 
sleepy. 

“Oh, for goodness sake, keep still and let me 
sleep,” she cried, adding ferociously: “I saw a 
knife around somewhere downstairs. If anybody 
speaks another word I’m going down and get it.” 

Whether this threat had anything to do with it 
or not, it would be hard to say. But at any rate 
the girls did stop talking and settled down for 
sleep. 

All but one of them succeeded in drifting off into 


124 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

the land of nod in no time at all, but that one of 
them — who was Billie — lay for a long time with 
eyes wide open staring into the dark. 

Then gradually the soft lapping of waves upon 
the beach soothed her into a sort of doze where 
tall thin men and shabby picture albums and queer 
little huts were all confused and jumbled together. 
Only one thing stood out clearly, and that was the 
great searchlight, twinkling, winking, glowing, 
sending its friendly message far out upon the sea. 

Then all the troubled visions disappeared in a 
soft black cloud. Billie was asleep. 


CHAPTER XVII 


FUN AND NONSENSE 

The next morning the girls were up with the 
sun. They were in hilarious spirits and made so 
much noise that Mrs. Danvers, busily getting break- 
fast in the kitchen below, smiled to herself and 
hugged a big collie that at that moment strolled 
leisurely into the room. 

The big collie’s name was Bruce, and he belonged 
to Uncle Tom of the lighthouse. But although 
Uncle Tom was his master and was first in his 
dog’s heart, Connie’s mother was his very next 
best beloved and Bruce spent his time nearly 
equally between the lighthouse and Uncle Tom 
and the cottage and Connie’s mother. 

Now he answered the woman’s hug with a lov- 
ing look from his beautiful eyes and waved his 
brush gratefully. 

''Bruce darling,” said Connie’s mother, as she 
lifted a pan of biscuits and shoved it into the oven, 
"it’s a perfectly gorgeous morning and a perfectly 
gorgeous world and you’re a perfectly gorgeous 
125 


126 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

dog. Now don’t deny it. You know you are! How 
about it?” 

To which Bruce responded by a more vigorous 
waving of his white tipped brush that very nearly 
swept a second pan of biscuits off on to the well- 
swept floor. 

Connie’s mother rescued it with a quick motion 
of her arm and stared at Bruce reproachfully. 

“Bruce, just suppose you had spoiled it!” she 
scolded, as she slipped the pan into the oven after 
its fellow. “Don’t you know that I have four 
hungry girls to feed, to say nothing of a great 
big husband ” 

“Now what are you saying about me?” asked a 
man’s pleasant voice from the doorway, adding as 
Connie’s mother turned toward him: “Can’t I 
help, dear? You look rather warm.” 

“Warm! Well, I should say I was!” said Con- 
nie’s mother, sweeping a stray lock of hair back 
out of her eyes. “But what do I care when it’s 
such a wonderful world? Haven’t I got my baby 
back again, and three others as well? They’re sweet 
girls, aren’t they, John? And Billie Bradley is 
going to be a beauty.” 

“Well, I know some one else who is a beauty,” 
said Mr. Danvers, looking admiringly at his wife’s 
rosy face and wide-apart, laughing eyes, adding 
with a smile: “Even though she has a big patch 
of flour under one eye.” 


Fun and Nonsense 


127 


“Oh!^’ cried Connie’s mother, and wiped her 
face vigorously with a pink and white checked 
apron. “Now just for that,” she said, turning to 
her husband, who was still lounging in the door- 
way, “I’m going to put you out. And Bruce, too. 
I have enough to do without having a husband 
who makes fun of me and a dog who sticks his tail 
into everything under my feet all the time. Hurry 
on,” and she pushed her protesting, laughing hus- 
band and the reluctant dog out through the open 
door and into the brilliant sunshine beyond. 

“Are you going to call us in time for breakfast?” 
Mr. Danvers called back to his wife over his 
shoulder. 

“Of course,” she, answered. “Fll send Connie 
after you.” And she playfully waved a frying pan 
at him. 

“She put us out, Bruce,” said Mr. Danvers lay- 
ing a caressing hand on the dog’s beautiful head as 
he walked gravely along beside him. “But we love 
her just the same, don’t we?” And Bruce’s answer 
was to press close to Mr. Danvers and wave his tail 
enthusiastically. 

Hardly had Mrs. Danvers had time to put the 
bacon in the oven to keep warm and break the eggs 
into the pan when there was a sound of skirmish- 
ing on the stairs, and a moment later a whirlwind 
broke in upon her. 

“Mother, Mother, Mother, everything smells 


128 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

good!” cried Connie, dancing over to her mother 
and hugging her so energetically that she almost 
sent the eggs, pan and all, on the floor. ‘‘Is there 
anything we can do to help ?” 

“Yes — go away,” cried Connie's mother, seeing 
with dismay that one of the eggs in the pan was 
broken — and Connie's mother prided herself upon 
serving perfect eggs. Then, as she saw the surprise 
in the girls faces, she relented, left the eggs to their 
fate, and hugged them all. 

“You're darlings,” she said. “But you're aw- 
fully in the way. Billie, for goodness sake, hand 
me that pancake turner. Quick! These eggs are 
going to be awful !” 

But Billie had jumped to the rescue, and when 
the eggs were turned out on the platter with the 
bacon surrounding them on four sides, they did not 
look “awful” at all, but just about the most appe- 
tizing things the girls had ever laid hungry eyes 
on. 

“Oh, let me carry them!” 

“No, let me!” 

“ni do it!” 

And to a chorus of a score or so other such 
pleas, the eggs were borne triumphantly into the 
dining room and set carefully on the table. 

“Now the biscuits!” cried Connie, running back 
into the kitchen where her mother was just heap- 


Fun and Nonsense 


129 

ing another platter high with golden brown de- 
liciousness. 

‘"Oh, Mother,^’ said Conne, darting a kiss at 
her mother that landed just exactly on the tip of 
Mrs. Danvers’ pretty astonished nose, “everything 
you cook always looks just exactly like you.” 

Then she disappeared with the biscuits, leaving 
her mother to rub her nose and smile somewhat 
proudly. 

“I guess it must have been a compliment,” she 
chuckled, as she followed Connie with a second 
plate of biscuits, “for they always seem to like what 
I cook.” 

The girls were already waiting politely but im- 
patiently for her. She was about to sit down when 
she thought of Mr. Danvers. She looked hastily at 
Connie. 

“I told your father I’d send you after him when 
breakfast was ready,” she said; and Connie looked 
dismayed. 

“Oh, bother!” she said. “I just know they’ll eat 
all the biscuits before I get back.” 

“No, we won’t. We promise,” said Billie; but 
Connie still looked doubtful enough to make them 
giggle as she flung out of the door in search of her 
father. 

She had been gone scarcely two minutes when 
she returned triumphantly with her father and 
Bruce in tow. 


130 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

“They were just coming back,’^ she told her 
mother, as she sank into her seat and reached for 
a biscuit. “Daddy said he smelled the biscuits 

and they drew him with What was it you 

said they drew you with, Daddy?’* 

“Irresistible force?’* asked Mr. Danvers, as he 
greeted the girls and took his seat at the head of 
the table. “Now, if they only taste as they smell 

** He smiled at his wife across the table and 

she handed him a plate full of the golden brown 
biscuits. 

“Who owns the dog?” asked Laura boyishly, as 
Bruce sat down gravely at Mrs. Danvers* side, 
looking up at her adoringly. 

“Oh, please, excuse me; I forgot to introduce 
him,** cried Mrs. Danvers, dimpling and laying her 
hand lightly on the dog’s head. “This is Robert 
Bruce, and he’s a thoroughbred and belongs to 
Uncle Tom, and lives over at the lighthouse.” 

“The lighthouse,” repeated Billie eagerly, then 
added as though she were thinking aloud: “Oh, 
but I’m crazy to see it.” 

“Are you?” asked Connie’s mother, looking sur- 
prised at Billie’s eagerness, for the lighthouse was 
an old story to her. “Connie can take you over 
there to-day if you would like to go.” 

“Oh, won’t that be lovely!” cried Vi. “I’ve 
always wanted to see inside a real lighthouse. 


Fun and Nonsense 


131 

I want to know all about the lights and everything. 
When can we go, Mrs. Danvers?’’ 

‘‘Any time you like,” answered Mrs. Danvers, 
hear heart warming to their girlish enthusiasm. 
She was falling in love with Connie’s friends more 
and more every minute. “Uncle Tom receives vis- 
itors at all hours of the day.” 

“And he has lots of ’em,” added Connie, nodding 
over her coffee cup. “All the children and the 
men love him. He can tell so many stories, you 
know ” 

“And fish stories too, I reckon,” put in Connie’s 
mother laughingly. “You know you can never really 
depend upon a sailor’s telling the truth.” 

Good as the breakfast was, the girls found them- 
selves hurrying through it, so eager were they to 
see the lighthouse and Uncle Tom. They took 
Bruce with them at Mrs. Danvers’ request, for she 
was going to be very busy and the big dog did 
have a habit of getting in the way. 

As the girls swung along the boardwalk they 
had a wild desire to shout with the sheer joy of 
living. Everything looked so different by daylight. 
It was not half so thrilling and mysterious, but it 
was much more beautiful. 

The ocean was calm, for there was almost no 
wind. The water gleamed and sparkled in the 
brilliant sunshine, and the beach was almost too 
dazzlingly white to look upon. 


132 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

In the distance rose the irregular outline of the 
mainland, but on all other sides there was nothing 
but an illimitable stretch of long, graceful, rolling 
combers. 

As the girls came out upon the Point, there, be- 
fore them, rose the lighthouse tower, robbed of 
the mystery it had worn the night before, yet wear- 
ing a quaint, romantic dignity all its own. 

‘^Connie,^^ said Billie happily, *'Vm sure this is 
the most wonderful place in the world.’* 


CHAPTER XVIII 


UNCLE TOM 

Uncle Tom was undeniably glad to see them. 
He was sitting in the little room at the base of the 
tower which was his living room, smoking a great 
corn-cob pipe and idly turning over the pages of 
a book. 

But as Connie entered and ran to him with a joy- 
ful cry, he put the pipe down carefully, flung the 
book on the floor and caught the girl in a bear's 
hug. 

‘Well, well !” he cried, his great voice filling the 
room like thunder, “here's my little girl come back 
to me again. I was beginning to think you'd de- 
serted your uncle in his old age, Connie, lass. When 
did you get back? And who are these other very 
pretty young ladies you have with you?" 

“They are my chums and the nicest girls in all 
the world," said Connie, turning to them gayly. 
“You must have known they were coming. Uncle 
Tom. Mother said she told you." 

“Yes, yes, so she did," said Uncle Tom in the 
same hearty tones that seemed to fill the little 
133 


134 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

room and — ^the girls could almost have sworn to it 
— make it tremble. ^‘But my memory is getting 
worse and worse, Connie, lass,’^ he added, with a 
doleful shake of the head that was belied by the 
merry twinkle in his eyes. ‘‘Let me see now, what 
was it their names were?’^ 

Then laughingly Connie introduced the girls and 
Uncle Tom had some funny personal little thing 
to say to each one of them so that by the time the 
introdiuctions were over they were all laughing 
merrily and feeling very well acquainted. 

‘T suppose you will be wanting to see the tower,” 
said Uncle Tom, after he had shown them all 
around the quaint little room and introduced them 
to some of his treasures — queer racks and shells 
and pebbles that he had picked up in his wander- 
ings. “Everybody always wants to climb the tower, 
and it’s mighty hard on a poor old fellow with a 
weak back, let me tell you.” And again the doleful 
shake of the head was belied by the twinkle in his 
eyes. 

“Oh, we’re in no hurry, please,” put in Billie, 
turning from one of the small-paned, outward-open- 
ing windows that looked straight out upon the 
ocean. “I think this is the darlingest room I ever 
saw. I could spend days and days just looking 
around here.” 

Connie’s Uncle Tom stood six feet two in his 
stocking feet and was broad in proportion. He 


Uncle Tom 


135 

had a shock of reddish brown hair that was be- 
coming slightly streaked with gray, but his -face 
was clean shaven. His features were rugged, rather 
than handsome, but his eyes were large and red- 
brown to match his hair and with an everlasting 
humor in them that made everybody love him who 
knew him. 

And now he stood looking down at Billie^s pretty, 
eager face, and, though his face was grave, his 
eyes were laughing as usual. 

‘'I'm glad you like it," he said. “I do. But then, 
I have to." 

"I should think you’d want to,” Billie shot back. 
“Why, I am sure I wou^ ’ just love to live here 
myself " 

“No, you wouldn’t," Uncle Tom interrupted, tak- 
ing up his pipe and puffing at it thoughtfully. “It’s 
mighty nice in the day time. I’ll admit. Then it’s 
a mighty pretty, homey place. But at night, es- 
pecially on a stormy night, it’s different. The wind 
wails round here like a tortured ghost, the waves 
beat upon the rock foundation of the to we. like 
savage beasts trying to tear it apart, and the to "^er 
itself seems to quiver and tremble. And you stai"' 

to wonder ’’ the girls had gathered closer to 

him, for his voice was grave and his eyes had 
stopped laughing — “about the ships away out there 
in the fury of the storm, som.e of them crippled, 
distressed, sinking perhaps. And you get to think- 


136 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

ing about the men and women, and little children 
maybe, on board and wondering how many will be 
alive when the storm dies down. I tell you it 
grips you by the throat, it makes your eyes ache 
with pity, and you curse the storm that’s bringing 
disaster along with it.” 

His hands were clenched, his face was hard and 
stern, and the girls felt thrilled, stirred, as they 
had never been before. But suddenly he jumped 
to his feet, went over to the window and stood 
there looking out for a moment. And when he 
came back he was smiling so naturally that the girls 
caught themselves wondering if they had not 
dreamed what had gone before. 

‘‘I didn’t mean to give you a lecture,” he told 
them gayly. And with strange reluctance they 
shook off the spell and smiled with him. ‘‘Come 
on, let’s take a look at the tower, and then I’ll 
give you some clam chowder. Would you like 
some clam chowder?” 

They were too fresh from breakfast to be wildly 
enthusiastic even over clam chowder just then, but 
they knew the time would come soon when they 
would be hungry again, so they assented happily 
and followed the broad back of Uncle Tom up the 
winding tower steps. 

They exclaimed over the tower room, and the 
wonderful revolving light, but the thing that 


Uncle Tom 


137 

charmed them most was the platform that com- 
pletely encircled the tower. 

They reached the platform through a small door, 
and as the girls stepped out upon it they felt almost 
as if they were stepping out into space. 

The water seemed unbelievably far away, farther 
a good deal than it actually was, and Billie did not 
dare look down very long for fear of becoming 
dizzy. 

It was almost half an hour before Uncle Tom 
finally succeeded in luring them away from the 
platform, and then the whole crowd of girls went 
reluctantly. 

They went downstairs with Uncle Tom and lis- 
tened to his yams, with Bruce curled happily up 
at his master's feet, until the thought of the clam 
chowder he had promised them became insistent 
and Connie asked him pointblank whether he had 
forgotten all about it. 

Uncle Tom indignantly denied the latter imputa- 
tion, and set about preparing the chowder immedi- 
ately, the girls oflFering eager but inexperienced 
help. Bruce tried to help, too, but only succeeded, 
as usual, in getting himself in the way. 

And after that came bliss! The girls succeeded 
in devouring a huge pot of delicious chowder — it 
was better than that they had had the night before, 
because it was freshly made — and it was after three 
o'clock before they finally tore themselves from the 


138 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

lighthouse and Uncle Tom and started for the Dan- 
vers’ bungalow. 

‘‘Come again and come often,” he called after 
them in his megaphone voice, one hand stroking 
Bruce’s beautiful head as the big dog stood beside 
him. 

“We will,” they answered happily. 

“Especially if you give us clam chowder every 
time,” Billie laughed back at him over her shoulder. 
“Good-bye, Bruce.” She turned once more before 
they lost sight of the lighthouse keeper, and there he 
was, towering in the doorway, his dog at his side, 
smoking his corn cob pipe and gazing thoughtfully 
out to sea. 

“I don’t wonder you love him, Connie,” she said, 
shading her eyes with her hand, for the brilliant 
sunshine made her blink. “I think he’s wonderful. 
He’s like — like — somebody out of a book.” 

“Poor Teddy,” said Laura, with a wicked side 
glance at her chum. “I guess he’d better hurry up, 
if he’s coming.” 

Billie tried hard to think of something crushing 
to say in reply, but before she could speak Connie 
gave an excited little skip that very nearly landed 
her in the sand a couple of feet below the board- 
walk. 

“Oh, when do you suppose the boys will get 
here?” she asked eagerly. “Fm just crazy to go 
out in that motor boat of Paul’s.” 


Uncle Tom 


139 

“Yes, to have the boys come will be all we need 
to make us perfectly happy,’' declared Vi. 

“Well, they ought to be along in a few days 
now,” said Billie. Then she suddenly caught Con- 
nie’s arm and pointed out toward the water’s edge. 

“Look!” she cried. “There are some people in 
swimming.” 

“Why, of course,” said Connie. “We can go in 
swimming, too, to-morrow if we want to. Maybe 
Uncle Tom will come along. I always feel safer 
with him, he’s such a wonderful swimmer.” 

“Oh, I hope so,” said Vi, adding plaintively: “I 
only wish to-morrow wasn’t such a long way off,” 
and she sighed. 

The girls walked along in silence for a few min- 
utes. Then Billie spoke as if she were thinking 
aloud. 

“I wonder,” she said, “what your Uncle Tom 


“You’d better call him your Uncle Tom,” said 
Connie, with a laugh, “because he’s already adopted 
you.” 

“All right,” agreed Billie. “I wonder what made 
Uncle Tom speak the way he did about storms and 
wrecks and — and — things ” 

“Why, since he’s a sailor,” said Laura, “I sup- 
pose he’s been in all sorts of wrecks, and of course 
he thinks about them most in a storm.” 

“No,” said Connie gravely. “No, that isn’t it. 


140 Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

You see/’ she lowered her voice a little and spoke 
slowly, ‘‘Uncle Tom lost somebody in a wreck once. 
She was a very lovely girl, it is said, and Uncle 
Tom was engaged to marry her.” 

The girls’ young faces were very sober as they 
gazed at Connie. 

“Oh,” said Billie softly. “Now I see. Poor, 
poor Uncle Tom!” 


CHAPTER XIX 


Paul’s motor boat 

The days flew by on wings and the girls were 
surprised to wake one morning to find that they 
had been at Lighthouse Island over a week. 

They had been bathing and boating and swim- 
ming till they were tanned a beautiful brown, the 
color not being confined to their faces, but cover- 
ing their arms and hands as well. 

What with the exercise and Mrs. Danvers’ won- 
derful cooking, they had gained flesh so fast that 
they had begun to wonder a little anxiously if they 
were ‘^bound for the freak show.” 

“Why, it’s positively dreadful!” Laura declared 
one morning, feeling ruefully of her waistline which 
she was quite certain had expanded at least two 
inches. “I’ve simply got to stop eating, or some- 
thing.” 

“Stop eating!” echoed Billie, taking up a hand- 
ful of sand and letting it sift slowly through her 
fingers. “Well, maybe you can do it, Laura dear, 
but I certainly can’t — not with Connie’s mother 
doing the cooking.” 


142 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

“I don’t intend to try, no matter how fat I get,” 
declared Vi. 

It was right after breakfast, and the girls had 
jumped into their bathing suits, as they did at almost 
the same time every morning, and were waiting im- 
patiently for the hour to pass that Mrs. Danvers’ 
had insisted must pass before they went in swim- 
ming after breakfast. 

“Mother said she might come down this morning 
and go in with us,” said Connie, her eyes fixed 
dreamily on the horizon. Then suddenly she sat 
up straight and stared. 

“What’s the matter?” asked Billie. “Seeing 
ghosts or something?” 

“No. But look!” Connie clutched at her arm. 
“Isn’t that a motor boat ?” 

“That” was a tiny spot that grew bigger as they 
looked and seemed to be headed in their direction. 

“It’s a boat of some sort, I think,” said Vi. “But 
you can’t tell whether it’s a motor boat or some 
other kind of a craft.” 

“Of course you can,” Laura broke in excitedly. 
“It’s got to be a motor boat because there aren’t 
any sails or anything. It is! It is! Oh, girls! 
could it be ” 

“The boys ?” finished Billie, shading her eyes with 
her hand and gazing eagerly out toward the spec 
that was growing larger every minute. “Oh, 
wouldn’t it be wonderful?” 


Paul’s Motor Boat 


143 

‘‘But weVe not a bit sure it’s the boys,” Connie 
reminded her. *^Lots of motor boats come here 
in the summer.” 

“Oh, stop being a kill-joy,” Laura commanded, 
giving her a little shake. “I just feel it in my bonew 
that the boys are in that boat. Where will they 
land, Connie?” 

“At the dock, of course,” Connie answered, in 
a tone which said very plainly: “You ought to 
have known that without asking.” 

“Well, let’s run around there then,” cried Billie, 
her cheeks red with excitement. “They won’t know 
what to do if nobody’s there to meet them.” 

As always with Billie, to think a thing was to 
do it, and before the girls had a chance to say 
anything she was off, fleet-footed, down the sand 
in the direction of the dock. 

The girls stared for a minute, then Laura started 
in pursuit. 

“Come on,” she cried. “She’s crazy, of course, 
but we’ve got to follow her, I suppose.” 

Billie had almost reached the dock before they 
caught up with her. Then Laura reached out a 
hand and jerked her to stop. 

“Billie,” she gasped, “be sensible for just a min- 
ute, please. Suppose it isn’t the boys? Then we 
won’t want to be waiting around as though we 
wanted somebody to speak to us !” 

“Well, but Tm sure it is the boys. You said 


144 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

so yourself/^ retorted Billie impatiently, her eyes 
fixed on the mysterious spot dancing and bobbing 
on the glistening water. “And they certainly won^t 
know what to do if there isn’t a soul here to meet 
them.” 

“But we don’t want to meet them in our bath- 
ing suits,” said Vi, who, with,Connie, had just come 
pantingly up. “It wouldn’t be just proper, would 
it?” 

Billie looked at her doubtfully a moment, then 
reluctantly shook her head. 

“No, I don’t suppose it would,” she admitted, 
adding with a stamp of her foot : “But I did want 
to be here to meet them.” 

“Well, we can be, if we rush,” broke in Connie. 
“The boat won’t reach the dock for fifteen or 
twenty minutes anyway, because it’s still a long way 
off. We may be able to throw some clothes on 
and be back by that time.” 

“ ‘Throw’ is right,” Laura said skeptically, but 
Billie was already racing off again in the direction 
of the cottage. With a helpless little laugh, the 
girls followed. 

The boys would have declared it could not be 
done. But the girls proved that it could. They 
were panting when they reached the house, stopped 
just long enough to explain to the surprised Mrs. 
Danvers and then scurried upstairs, and with eager 


Paul's Motor Boat 145 

fingers tore off their bathing suits and substituted 
their ordinary clothes. 

“It's good we didn’t go in bathing and get our 
hair all wet,” Vi panted, but Laura put a hand over 
her mouth. 

“Stop talking,” she commanded. “You need your 
breath !” 

As a matter of fact, they were pretty much out 
of the last-named article when they reached the 
dock again. But the great thing was that they 
had succeeded in getting there before whoever was 
in that motor boat made a landing. 

“Suppose after all this it isn’t the boys?” panted 
Laura, and Connie gave her a funny glance. 

“Kill-joy,” she jeered, paying her back. 

Laura was about to retort, but Billie interrupted 
with a chuckle. 

“Stop fighting, girls,” she commanded, “and tell 
me something. Is my hair on straight?” 

“No, it’s too much over one eye,” replied Connie 
in the same tone. 

Then Vi claimed their attention. 

“Look!” she cried. “They are coming around 
the other side of the dock. Oh, isn’t that a per- 
fectly beautiful boat?” 

It was, but the girls were just then too much 
interested in finding out who was in the boat to 
pay very much attention to its beauty. The grace- 
ful craft swung around toward them, the motor 


146 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

was shut ofif, and the boat glided easily in to the 
dock. 

The girls were standing a little way back, so as 
not to appear too curious, and that was the reason 
why the boys saw them before they saw the new- 
comers. 

There was a whoop from the deck of the motor 
boat, a shout of, ‘‘Say, fellows, look who’s here!” 
and the next moment three sportily clad young fig- 
ures leaped out on the dock and made a dash for 
the girls, leaving the fourth member of their party 
protesting vigorously. 

The fourth member was none other than Paul 
Martinson, and, being the owner and captain of the 
handsome motor boat, he had no intention of fol- 
lowing the other boys and leaving his^ craft to 
wander out to sea. 

So he told the boys what he thought of them, 
which did not do a particle of good since they did 
not hear a word he said, and remained in the boat 
while he held on to the dock with one hand. 

Meanwhile Chet had hugged his sister and Teddy 
had hugged his sister and Ferd had declared long- 
ingly that he wished he had a sister to hug, it 
made him feel lonesome, and there was laughter 
and noise and confusion generally. 

It was Connie who reminded them of poor Paul 
grumbling away all by himself in his boat, and the 


Paul’s Motor Boat 


147 

boys ran penitently over to him while the girls 
danced after them joyfully. 

‘'Oh, what a splendid boat!’’ 

“Isn’t she a beauty!” 

“What good times you must have in her.” 

It was really an unusually handsome craft, and 
it was little wonder that Paul regarded it with 
pride. He invited the girls on board, and they 
went into raptures enough over it to satisfy even 
him. 

It was a good fifty feet in length and had a cabin ' 
in which one could stand up if one were not very 
tall. There were bunks running along both sides 
of the cabin that looked like leather-cushioned di- 
vans in the daytime and could be turned into the 
most comfortable of beds at night. 

There was a galley “for’ard,” too, where the 
boys cooked their rather sketchy meals, and into 
this the girls poked eagerly curious heads. 

“Oh, it’s all just the completest thing I’ve ever 
seen!” cried Billie, clapping her hands in delight 
while Paul looked at her happily. “Those cunning 
curtains at the window and — everything!” 

“My mother did that,” Paul admitted sheepishly, 
as he followed the girls out on the deck. “And 
I didn’t like to take them down.” 

“Well, I should say you wouldn’t take them 
down !” said Connie indignantly. “The idea ! 


148 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

Don’t you dream of it! Why, they are just what 
make the cabin!” 

'‘But isn’t this some deck ! Did your mother do 
this too, Paul?” asked Laura, her eyes traveling 
admiringly from the pretty wicker lounging chairs 
to the gayly striped awning and brilliant deck rail 
that shown like gold in the dazzling sun. “Why, 
Paul, I never knew a motor boat could be so pretty 
and comfy.” 

“Say, but you ought to see her go !” put in Chet 
eagerly. “She’s as fast a little boat as she is pretty. 
Oh, she’s great!” 

“Yes, it almost makes me wish I had done some 
studying at school,” said Ferd Stowing, rubbing 
his head ruefully. “Maybe if I had my dad would 
have given me an aeroplane or something.” 

After they had fastened the boat securely to the 
dock so that there was no danger of its floating off 
they turned reluctantly away from the dock and 
started off toward the Danvers’ cottage. 

Then the girls tried to tell the boys all that had 
happened since they had last met and the boys 
tried to do the same, the result being hopeless con- 
fusion and perfect happiness. 

“Say, make believe that beach doesn’t look good !” 
exclaimed Teddy to Billie, for they had fallen a 
little behind the rest. “And the good old ocean — 
say, what a day for a swim !” 

“That’s just what we were going to do when we 


Paul’s Motor Boat 


149 


saw you coming/' Billie confided, thinking how ex- 
ceedingly handsome he looked in his white trousers 
and dark coat. Then she told him of the wild 
scramble they had had to get dressed, and she looked 
so pretty in the telling of it that he did not hear 
much of what she was saying to him for looking at 
her. 

'‘But what made you so sure it was us?" asked 
Teddy ungrammatically. 

Billie chuckled and gave a little skip of pure 
happiness. 

“Laura said she felt it in her bones," she said. 


CHAPTER XX 


OUT OF THE FOG 

That afternoon the boys and girls went in swim- 
ing and that evening Connie’s mother treated them 
all to a substantial dinner such as only she knew 
hov^ to cook. 

And the way it disappeared before those raven- 
ous girls and boys made even Mr. Danvers hold up 
his hands in consternation. But Connie’s mother 
laughed happily, pressed them to eat everything up, 
^‘for it would only spoil,” and looked more than 
ever like Connie’s older sister. 

That night the boys were put up in a spare room 
which contained one bed and two cots which Con- 
nie’s mother always kept stowed away for emer- 
gencies. For the cottage on Lighthouse Island 
was a popular place with Mrs. Danvers’ relatives 
and friends, and she often had unexpected com- 
pany. 

They went out on the porch a little while after 
supper, and the boys were at their funniest and 
kept the girls in a continual gale of merriment. 

The time passed so quickly that before they knew 
150 


Out of the Fog 151 

it eleven o’clock chimed out from the hall inside 
and in consternation Connie’s mother hurried them 
all off to bed. 

‘‘To-morrow is another day,” she added with a 
little smile. 

As they started up the stairs Teddy looked down 
at Billie and said boyishly: 

“Say, Billie, you’ve got some sunburn, haven’t 
you? You’re — you’re mighty pretty.” 

Then Teddy blushed and Billie blushed, and Billie 
hoped with all her heart that Laura had not heard 
it. 

Laura had not, for she was talking and laughing 
with Paul Martinson and Connie. And so Billie, 
running ahead and reaching her room first, turned 
on the light and stepped over to the mirror. 

Was that Billie, she wondered, who gazed back 
at her from the mirror? For this girl was surely 
prettier than Billie ever had been. Her eyes were 
shining, her cheeks were flushed under their tan, 
and her hair, a little tumbled by the breeze from 
the sea, made an unexpectedly pretty frame for a 
very lovely face. 

The next day the girls insisted that the boys 
take them out in their motor boat. The boys pro- 
tested a little, for the sun was acting rather queerly 
■ — going under a cloud and staying there sometimes 
for half an hour on a stretch. 

“I don’t know,” said Paul, a doubtful eye on the 


152 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

sky. ‘‘It isn’t what you could call a real clear day^ 
girls, and I don’t want to take any chances with 
you.” 

“Oh, we’re not afraid, if you’re not,” sang out 
Laura teasingly, and he turned round upon her 
with a scowl. 

“I’m not afraid for myself, and I think probably 
you know that. Just the same ” 

“Oh, but here’s the sun!” called Vi suddenly, as 
the sun burst forth from the cloud and showered 
a golden glory over everything. “It’s going to be 
a beautiful day — just beautiful.” 

So it was settled, and amid great fun and laugh- 
ter they picked up the lunch that Connie’s mother 
prepared for them and started happily off, humming 
as they went. 

As they clambered aboard The Shelling — Paul 
had named his craft after Captain Shelling, the 
master of Boxton Military Academy, — ^the sun went 
under a cloud again, and this cloud was bigger and 
blacker than any that had swallowed it before. But 
Laura’s taunt still rang in Paul’s ears, and he said 
nothing. 

In a little while there was no need for words. 
The girls began to see for themselves that Paul 
had been right and that it would have been far bet- 
ter if they had waited till a really clear day. 

They had put some distance between them and 


Out of the Fog 153 

the mainland when the sun went under a cloud for 
good, and a cool little breeze began to rise. 

This had been going on for some time before 
they even realized it, they were having such fun. 
Then it was Connie who spoke. 

Doesn’t it look a little — a little — threatening, 
Paul?” she asked timidly. “Do you suppose it is 
going to rain?” 

“No, I don’t think it’s going to rain,” Paul 
answered, his hands on the wheel, his eyes rather 
anxiously fixed on the water ahead. “But I do 
think we’re going to have one of those sudden 
heavy mists that come off the coast here. Dad said 
to look out for them, because they’re thick enough 
to cut, and if you get caught in one you can’t see 
your hand before your face.” 

The girls were sober enough now as they looked 
at each other. 

“But what makes you think we’re going to have 
one, Paul?” asked Laura humbly. 

“Because the air is so still and muggy,” Paul 
answered, then added with a wave of his hand out 
over the water: “Look — do you see that?” 

“That” was a faint, misty cloudlike vapor hang- 
ing so low that it seemed almost to touch the water. 
And suddenly the girls were conscious that their 
hair was wet and also their hands and their clothes. 

“Goodness, we must be in it now !” said Vi look- 


154 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

ing wonderingly down at her damp skirt. '‘Only 
it’s so light you can’t see it.” 

“I’m afraid it won’t be light very long,” said 
Paul grimly, as he swung The Shelling around and 
headed back the way they had come. 

“What are you going to do?” asked Laura, still 
more humbly, for she now was beginning to think 
that she was to blame for the fix they were in — if 
indeed it were a fix. 

“I’m going to get back to land as soon as I can,” 
Paul answered her. “Before this fog closes down 
on us.” 

“What would happen, Paul?” asked Billie softly. 
“I mean if it should close down on us.” 

“We’d be lost,” said Paul shortly, for by this 
time he was more than anxious. He was worried. 

“Lost!” they repeated, and looked at each other 
wide-eyed. 

“Well, you needn’t look as if that was the end 
of the world,” said Teddy, trying to speak lightly. 
“All we would have to do would be to keep on 
drifting around till the fog lifted. It’s simple.” 

“Yes, it’s simple all right,” said Chet gloomily. 
“If we don’t run into anything.” 

“Run into anything!’' gasped Connie, while the 
other girls just stared. “Oh, Paul, is there really 
any danger of that?” 

“Of course,” said Paul impatiently, noticing that 
the fog was growing thicker and blacker every 


155 


Out of the Fog 

moment. * There’s always danger of running into 
something when you get yourself lost in a fog. 
And it’s the little boat that gets the worst of it,” 
he added gloomily. 

“Say, can’t you try being cheerful for a change?” 
cried Teddy indignantly, for he had noticed how 
white Billie was getting and was trying his best to 
think of something to say that would make her 
laugh. “There’s no use of singing a funeral song 
yet, you know.” 

“No, and there’s no use in starting a dance, 
either,” retorted Paul, wondering how much longer 
he would be able to keep his course. “We’re in 
a mighty bad fix, and no harm can be done by 
everybody knowing it. I can’t possibly get back 
to the island — or the mainland either — before this 
fog settles down upon us.” 

It took a minute or two for this to sink in. There 
was no doubt about it. He was telling them that 
in a few minutes they would be lost in this horrible 
fog. And that might mean — they shiyered and 
turned dismayed faces to each other. 

“I — oh, I’m awfully sorry,” wailed Laura. “If 
I hadn’t said what I did to Paul we might never 
have come.” 

“Nonsense ! that had nothing to do with it,” said 
Billie, puttting a loyal arm about her chum. “We 
would have come just the same.” 

Then followed a waking nightmare for the boys 


156 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

and girls. In a few moments the fog settled down 
upon them in a thick impenetrable veil, so dense 
that, as Paul had said, you could almost have cut 

it. 

It became impossible for Paul to steer, and all 
there was to do was to sit stJl and wait and hope 
for the best. Fog horns were sounding all about, 
some seeming so close that the girls fully expected 
to see some great shape loom up through the mist, 
bearing down upon them. 

For a long time nobody spoke — they were too 
busy listening to the weird moanings of the fog 
horns and wondering how they could have escaped 
a collision so long. For a while Paul had kept the 
engine running in the hope that he might be able 
to keep to his course and eventually get to Light- 
house Island. But he had decided that this only 
made a collision more likely, and so had shut it off. 
And now they had been floating for what seemed 
hours to the miserable boys and girls. 

It was Connie who finally broke the silence. 

‘‘Oh, dear,’^ she said, apropos of nothing at all, 
“now I suppose we’ll have to die and never solve 
our mystery after all.” She sighed plaintively, and 
the girls had a wild desire to shout with laughter 
and cry at the same time. 

“Goodness,” said Laura hysterically, “if we’ve 
got to die who cares about mysteries anyway?” 

The boys, who had been peering ahead into the 


Out of the Fog 157 

heavy unfriendly fog, looked at the girls in sur- 
prise. 

“What do you mean — mystery?’’ Ferd asked. 
Before the girls could answer a sharp cry from 
Paul jerked their eyes back to him. 

“Look!” he cried, one hand on the wheel and 
the other pointing excitedly before them to a dark 
something which loomed suddenly out of the mist. 
“There! To starboard. We’ll bump it sure!” 


CHAPTER XXI 


THE BOYS ARE INTERESTED 

% 

For a moment the girls were too terrified to 
speak. And the next moment they could not have 
spoken if they had wanted to, for The Shelling 
collided so suddenly with whatever it was that had 
risen out of the mist that they had all they could 
do to keep from being thrown to the deck. 

Then Paul gave a cry of joy and sprang wildly 
to the side of the boat. 

“Say, how’s this for luck, fellows?” he cried. 
“I thought it was another boat and that we were 
bound for Davy Jones’ locker sure, and here it’s 
the dock instead. Say, talk about luck! I’ll say 
it’s grand!” 

“The dock !” the others echoed wonderingly. The 
sudden relief was so great that they were feeling 
rather dazed. 

“You mean it’s our dock — Lighthouse Island?” 
Connie asked stupidly, and Paul’s answer was im- 
patient. 

“I guess it is — looks like it,” he said. “But then 
it doesn’t matter much what dock it is as long as 
158 


The Boys Are Interested 159 

it’s a dock. What do you people say to going 
ashore ?” 

What they said was soon shown by the eagerness 
with which they scrambled on to the dock. And 
when they found that it was really Lighthouse Is- 
land dock their thankfulness was mixed with awe. 

'Why, it’s a miracle!” said Vi, staring wide- 
eyed about her. 

"That’s just about what it looks like,” agreed 
Chet soberly. 

"A miracle!” exclaimed Ferd derisively. "It’s 
just that the wind and the tide happened to be going 
in the right way, that’s all.” 

"Well, it’s a miracle that the wind and the tide 
did happen to be going the right way,” retorted 
Laura. 

"Yes, and it’s another miracle,” said Billie softly, 
"that even with the wind and the tide going the 
right way we didn’t run into something before we 
got here.” 

"I guess we did come pretty close to it,” said 
Teddy soberly, staring out into the heavy mist that 
still showed no sign of lifting. "I don’t know 
about the rest of you, but I do know that I’m 
mighty glad to be on the good old ground again. It 
beats the water, just now.” 

"You bet,” said Paul fervently, as he made his 
boat fast to the dock. "It would have been a hot 


i6o Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

note if I^d had to lose my boat that way after work- 
ing all year to earn it” 

The girls and boys stared at him in surprise for 
a moment. Then they laughed, and the laughter 
broke the tension that they had been under and 
made them feel more natural. 

‘‘Never mind us as long as you saved your boat,” 
said Ferd with a chuckle. “Come on, folks. ICs 
mighty damp out here. I’ll be glad when we can 
get under cover and dry out a bit. Gee, but I’ll say 
I’m some wet.” 

“And Mother will be just worried to death,” 
cried Connie penitently, for this was the very first 
minute she had given her mother a thought. “Oh, 
let’s hurry.” 

They were starting off almost at a run when 
Billie called to them. 

“Do you know we forgot something ?” she asked. 
Then she pointed to the untouched lunch hamper 
which Mrs. Danvers had heaped high with good 
things. This was still standing close to the railing 
on the deck of The Shelling where the boys had 
put it when they climbed aboard. 

“We forgot all about eating,” she said in an in- 
credulous voice. “Now I know we were scared.” 

“Say, what do you know about that?” asked Ferd 
weakly. “I’d have said it couldn’t be done.” 

“And it must be away past lunch time, too,” 
added Chet. 


The Boys Are Interested i6i 

*'Oh, gosh! why did you go and remind me I 
was starving?’’ groaned Teddy, and with a quick 
mo' ement he leaped into the boat and caught up 
the oasket. ‘^Come on, who’s first?” he cried. 

But Billie stopped him by pressing a determined 
hand down on the lid. 

'‘Not here,” she begged. "We’re all wet and un- 
comfortable, and we’ll enjoy it ever so much more 
if we wait till we get to the house. Please, Teddy, 
now mind.” 

Teddy looked longingly at the basket, then at 
Billie, and gave in. 

"All right,” he said. "Only we’ll have to walk 
fast!” 

When they reached the cottage they found Con- 
nie’s mother almost beside herself with anxiety and 
Connie’s father doing his best to soothe her. So 
that when the young folks came in the door look- 
ing rather damp and bedraggled but safe, Mrs. 
Danvers cried out joyfully, ran to them, and hugged 
them one after another till she was completely and 
rapturously out of breath. 

“You precious kiddies!” she cried, standing back 
and regarding them with shining eyes. “You will 
never know how horribly worried Dad and I have 
been. You poor children, why, you are soaked 
through! And,” as her eyes fell on the basket, 
"you don’t mean to tell me you haven’t had any 
lunch. Oh dear, oh dear ! Run into the library, the 


1 62 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

lot of you. Daddy made a fire thinking if we ever 
did get you back you’d need some drying out — 
and you can be starting in on sandwiches while I 
make you some hot chocolate. Now run along — > 
quick. And she disappeared into the kitchen while 
the young folks went on into the library. 

Connie would have run after her mother to offer 
her help, but Mr. Danvers stopped her. 

‘‘ril help Mother,” he said. "‘You run along 
with the others, dear, and get warmed through. 
I don’t want my little girl to catch cold. It might 
spoil your whole summer.” 

So Connie went on into the library and found 
that the boys had arranged the chairs in a semi- 
circle around the fire and were already opening the 
lunch basket. 

Mrs. Danvers came in a few minutes later with 
the chocolate, and, oh, how that hot drink did taste ! 
She demanded to know all about everything. They 
told her, speaking one at a time, two at a time, and 
all at once, till it was a wonder she could make 
any sense out of it at all. But when she and her 
husband did realize how terribly close the young 
folks had been to disaster they looked very sober 
and in their hearts thanked Providence for guiding 
them back to safety. 

After they had eaten, the girls and boys felt very 
lazy and lingered in the pretty library before the 
open fire till the shadows began to fall. 


The Boys Are Interested 163 

“I hope we have half-way decent weather to start 
out on to-morrow/’ said Paul suddenly as he gazed 
out of the window. 

“Oh ! must you go to-morrow asked Billie, with 
such genuine regret that Teddy looked at her side- 
ways. 

“Pm afraid so,” said Paul, also turning to look 
at her. “WeVe had a bully good time and we’d 
like to stay longer, but you see I promised Dad 
I’d pick him up a little farther along the coast and 
I can’t do it unless we start to-morrow.” 

“But suppose it isn’t a nice day?” Connie put in. 
“Will you go anyway?” 

“Oh, of course, if it was really stormy we 
couldn’t. We would have to wire Dad or some- 
thing. But I think it’s going to be clear to-morrow,” 
he finished cheerfully. 

Connie shook her head. 

“I don’t know about that,” she said. “Uncle 
Tom says that a terribly heavy mist like this gen- 
erally forecasts a storm, and a pretty bad storm, 
too.” 

“Well, we don’t have to worry about that now, 
anyway,” said Teddy, stretching his long legs out 
contentedly toward the fire. “Let’s enjoy ourselves 
while we can. By the way,” he added, turning to 
Billie, and Billie thought that Teddy was getting 
better looking every minute — or was it the firelight? 
“what did you girls mean by speaking of a mys- 


164 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

tery? We haven’t heard a word about any mys- 
tery.” 

‘^Of course you haven’t. You don’t suppose we 
tell you everything, do you?” said Laura, with a 
sisterly sniff. 

'Well, but what did you mean?” asked Ferd, add- 
ing his voice to Teddy’s while the other boys seemed 
interested. 

The girls looked at one another and then at 
Billie. 

“Shall we tell them ?” asked Vi. 

“I don’t see why we shouldn’t,” Billie answered, 
her eyes on the fire. “Of course we don’t know 
that there’s any mystery about it. It only looks 
queer, that’s all.” 

Then with the help of the girls she told the boys 
all about the man who lived in a hut in the woods 
and called himself Hugo Billings, and also about 
Miss Arbuckle and the album she had been so over- 
joyed to recover. The boys listened with an inter- 
est that fast changed to excitement. 

“Well, I should say there was something queer 
about it!” Ferd Stowing broke out at last. “Es- 
pecially about the man who lives in the woods and 
makes fern baskets. He’s either crazy or he’s a 
thief or something.” 

“Gee, I wish you had told us about it while we 
were there!” said Chet regretfully. “We might 


The Boys Are Interested 165 

have been able to find out something — landed him 
in jail maybe.” 

‘Then I’m glad we didn’t tell you,” said Billie 
promptly. 

“Why?” asked Chet, amazed. 

“Because I felt awfully sorry for him,” his sis- 
ter answered softly. “And I’d rather help him than 
hurt him. I’d like to see him smile again.” 
“Smile?” 

“Yes, for he looked so awfully downhearted.” 


CHAPTER XXII 


THE FURY OF THE STORM 

The next day the boys went off again in spite 
of Mrs. Danvers^ entreaties to stay another night 
or two until the weather showed definite signs of 
clearing up. 

But the boys were decided — saying that since the 
mist had lifted they had really no excuse for stay- 
ing longer, and as Paul was evidently very anxious 
to get to his father, Mrs. Danvers had nothing else 
to do but to give in. 

“It’s true, the fog has lifted,” she admitted, 
gazing up anxiously at an overcast sky, “but after 
a calm like this we are sure to have a storm — how 
much of one it’s hard to tell. Well, go on. But 
promise me to stay close to the mainland and to 
put in to shore if the weather man looks too 
threatening.” 

The boys promised and the girls waved to them 
until The Shelling was only a tiny speck on the 
water. Then they turned rather sadly back toward 
the Danvers’ home. 

“I feel as if somebody were dead or something,” 
166 


The Fury of the Storm 167 

complained Vi, as they neared the bungalow. “I 
don’t know what’s the matter with me.” 

“It’s the weather, I guess,” said Billie, feeling 
low in spirits herself — a very unusual state for 
merry Billie. “We shall all feel better when the 
sun comes out.” 

“If it ever does,” said Laura, gloomily. 

“It’s got to,” said Vi. 

Half way home they saw Uncle Tom hurrying 
toward them with Robert Bruce at his heels, and 
they wondered what the matter was. 

“Hello!” he cried when he came within earshot. 
“I was just going to see your dad, Connie. The 
boys haven’t gone yet, have they?” 

And when Connie said that they had he looked 
so grave that the girls were frightened. 

“Why, Uncle Tom, what’s the matter?” asked 
Connie fearfully. 

“Matter enough,” said Uncle Tom, turning to 
scowl up at the overcast sky. “It’s as much as 
those youngsters’ lives are worth for them to set 
out to-day. Why, there’s a storm on the way,” 
and he fixed his eyes gravely on the girls, “such 
as this old Maine coast hasn’t seen for years. Why, 
every captain who can read the signs is going to 
make straight for the nearest port, or if he is too 
far away to make port before the storm breaks, he’s 
going to get down on his knees and pray the good 
Lord to make his old ship staunch enough to stand 


1 68 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

the test. It will be upon us by night.'' His eyes 
sought the wild dreary waste of water and he spoke 
as though to himself. “Lord, how I dread to- 
night !" 

“But, Uncle Tom, what can we do about the 
boys?" Connie shook his arm fiercely. “Why, if 
we have the kind of storm you say they may be 
drowned! Oh, can’t we do something?" 

Uncle Tom’s eyes came back from the horizon 
and he shook his head slowly. 

“I don’t know that there’s much we can do — 
now,'’ he said. “If they have any sense they’ll put 
in to port before the storm breaks. That is if they 
stick close in to shore." 

“They said they would," Billie put in eagerly. 
“Oh, I hope they do!" 

Uncle Tom nodded absently, for his mind seemed 
to be upon other things. 

“Then they ought to be all right," he said, add- 
ing, while the lines deepened about his mouth: 
“But Heaven help the ships that can’t put into 
shore to-night." 

He turned slowly and strode away from them 
toward the lighthouse with Bruce still following 
worshipfully after him. He had forgotten they 
were there. 

“Poor Uncle Tom!" said Connie, as they went 
slowly on toward the bungalow. “He always gets 


The Fury of the Storm 169 

so queer when there’s a storm along the coast. I 
guess it makes him think of — her.” 

It was night, and the storm had burst in all its 
fury. The four girls and Connie’s mother had 
gathered in the little front sitting room on the sec- 
ond floor. 

Mr. Danvers had started a few minutes before 
to press the button that would flood the room with 
light, but Billie had begged him not to. 

‘‘I want to see the light in the tower,” she had 
pleaded, adding softly: “Somehow I’m not quite 
so afraid for the ships out there when I see the 
light. Oh, listen to that wind !” 

“I don’t see how we can very well help it,” said 
Vi, with a little shiver and cuddling up close to 
Billie on the window seat and slipping a hand into 
hers. “Oh — h!” and she clapped her hand to her 
ears as the wind rose to a wailing scream and the 
windows all over the house shook and rattled with 
the impact. 

“I guess Uncle Tom was right,” said Connie, 
from somewhere out of the darkness. “Dad says, 
too, that this is the worst summer storm we have 
had around these parts for years. Oh, I do hope 
the boys are safe somewhere on shore.” 

“I don’t think w.e need worry about them,” said 
Mr. Danvers. Or rather he started to say it, but 
at that moment the wind rose with insane fury, 


170 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

bringing the rain with it in driving torrents that 
beat swishingly upon the sand and drove viciously 
against the windows. 

He waited for a moment until the wind died 
down. Then he began again. 

“The storm was a long time in coming/’ he said. 
“The boys had plenty of warning. Paul is very 
cautious, and I know he wouldn’t go on in the 
face of such danger. But,” and he turned toward 
the window again, “heaven help the ship that can’t 
make port to-night.” 

“That’s almost exactly what Uncle Tom said,” 
remarked Connie, and then there was silence in the 
little room again while outside the storm raged and 
the light from the lighthouse tower sent its warn- 
ing far out over the foam-crested waves. 

The girls went to bed at last. Not because they 
expected to sleep, but because Connie’s mother in- 
sisted. 

“Poor Uncle Tom!” murmured Billie to herself 
as, in her little white nightie, she stood at the win- 
dow looking out toward the lighthouse tower. “All 
alone out there. What was it he said? ‘You think 
of the men and the women and the little children 
out there on the sinking ships, and you curse the 
storm that’s bringing disaster along with it.’ Poor, 
poor Uncle Tom! I wonder if he is thinking of — 
her.” 


The Fury of the Storm 171 

And with a sigh she turned from the window and 
crept into bed beside Connie. 

Toward morning the girls were awakened from 
an uneasy sleep by a strange white light flashed 
suddenly in their eyes. They stumbled out of bed, 
dazed by the suddenness with which they had been 
awakened and stared out into the black night. 

*What was it?” gasped Billie. “Oh my, there it 
is again!” 

“The searchlight,” cried Connie, running over 
to the window, her eyes wide with horror. “Billie, 
that’s the signal to the lifesavers. And there goes 
the siren,” she groaned, clapping her hands over 
her ears as the moan of the siren rose wailingly 
into the night. “It’s a wreck I Billie — oh — oh I” 

“A wreck 1” cried a voice behind them, and they 
turned to see Laura in the doorway with Vi peer- 
ing fearfully over her shoulder. “Oh, girls, I was 
just dreaming ” 

“Never mind what you were dreaming,” cried 
Billie, beginning to pull on her clothes with trem- 
bling hands. “If it is a wreck, girls, we may be 
able to do something to help. Oh, where is my 
other stocking? Did any one see it? Never mind, 
here it is. Oh, hurry, girls; please, hurry.” 

Twice more while they were dressing the search- 
light flashed round upon the island, filling their 
rooms with that weird white light, and the siren 
wailed incessantly its wild plea for help. 


172 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

The girls were just pulling on their waterproof 
coats when Connie’s mother, white and trembling, 
appeared in the doorway and stared with amaze- 
ment at sight of them. 

“I heard you talking, girls,” she said, ‘‘and knew 
you were awake. I hoped you would sleep through 
it.” 

“Sleep through asked Connie, as the siren 

rose to a shriek and then died off into a despairing 
moan. “Oh, Mother ” 

“But what are you going to do, kiddies?” asked 
Mrs. Danvers, taking a step toward them. “The 
lifesavers will be coming soon — perhaps they are 
at work now — and they will do all that can be 
done. Why are you putting on your coats?” 

“Oh, please, please don’t make us stay at home,” 
begged Billie, turning an earnest, troubled face to 
Connie’s mother. “We may not be able to do any- 
thing to help, but we shall at least be there if we 
should be needed.” 

“Muddie, dear, we couldn’t stay here, we just 
couldn’t,” added Connie, and with a little choked 
cry Mrs. Danvers turned away. 

“You darling, darling kiddies,” she cried. “Run 
along then if you must. Only,” she stopped at the 
doorway to look earnestly back at them, “don’t go 
any farther than the lighthouse until Dad and I 
come. We’ll be along right away.” 

The girls ran down the stairs, and Connie opened 


173 


The Fury of the Storm 

the front door with hands that fumbled nervously 
at the lock. As the door swung open the wind 
sprang at them like a living thing, taking their 
breath, making them stagger back into the hall. 

*Th — that wind!” cried Laura, clenching her 
hands angrily. “Fd like to kill it ! Come on, girls,” 
Laura rushed out into the storm while the other 
girls followed, pulling the door shut behind them. 


CHAPTER XXIII 


FIGHTING FOR LIFE 

Foot by foot they fought their way through the 
storm, conscious that other hurrying forms passed 
them from time to time. Their minds were fixed 
upon one thing. They must get to Uncle Tom. He 
would be able to tell them everything and perhaps 
let them know how they could help. 

But they soon found that just getting to the light- 
house was a problem. Time and again they had 
to stop and turn their backs to the furious wind in 
order to catch enough breath to fight their way on. 

“Look!’' Connie had shouted once, pointing to- 
ward the east. “It must be almost morning. The 
sky is getting light.” 

As they hurried on they became more and more 
conscious that everybody seemed to be heading in 
the same direction — toward the lighthouse. 

“The shoal !” gasped Connie in Billie’s ear. “The 
wind must have driven some ship upon it, and in 
this gale ” 

But she never finished the sentence, for at this 
minute they came out upon the Point where the 
174 


Fighting for Life 175 

lighthouse stood and stopped dead at the scene 
that met their eyes. 

The Point was black with people all gesticulat- 
ing and pointing excitedly out toward a great shape 
which, looming grayly against the lifting blackness 
of the sky, staggered and swayed like a drunken 
thing in the grip of the gigantic foam-tipped waves. 

‘"Oh,’’ moaned Connie, “it’s just as I thought! 
There’s Uncle Tom. Come on, Billie.” And she 
elbowed her way through the crowd to where Uncle 
Tom stood, his great height making him conspicu- 
ous among the other men, bawling out directions to 
the life-savers who were just making ready to 
launch their staunch little boats. 

“Say, do you call this hurrying?” Uncle Tom 
was crying, his eyes traveling from the life-savers 
to the wreck and back again. “Don’t you see she’s 
just hanging on by her eyelashes? Another sea like 
that and you won’t have a chance to save anybody. 
Good boys — that’s the idea. Bend your backs, my 
lads. God help you — and them!” he added under 
his breath, his eyes on the laboring vessel. 

“Uncle Tom!” cried Connie, tugging at his arm, 
“have they got a chance — those people out there? 
Have they?” 

He glanced down at her for a moment, then his 
eyes sought the furious sea. He shook his head 
and his hands clenched tight at his sides. 

“About one chance in a thousand,” he muttered, 


176 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

more to himself than to her. “The Evil One’s in 
the sea to-night. I never saw the like of it — but 
once.” 

Then followed a struggle of human might against 
the will of the overpowering elements — a struggle 
that the girls never forgot. On, on, fought the 
gallant men in the staunch little boats. On, on to- 
ward the quivering giant that hung on the edge of 
destruction — ^her fate the fate of all the lives on 
board. 

The storm that had beaten her on to the treacher- 
ous shoal was now doing its best to loosen her hold 
upon it. And that hold was the one slender thread 
that kept alive the hope of the passengers on board. 

If the pounding waves once succeeded in pushing 
her back into the deeper water of the channel, noth- 
ing could save her' The great hole ripped in her 
side by the impact with the shoal would fill with 
water, and in five minutes there would be nothing 
left but the swirling water to mark the spot where 
she had been. 

And the passengers ! At the thought Billie cried 
out aloud and clenched her fists. 

“Oh. oh, it can’t be, it can’t be ! Those boats will 
never reach her in time. Oh, isn’t there something 
somebody can do?” She turned pleadingly to Uncle 
Tom, but the look on his face startled her and she 
followed his set gaze out to sea. 


Fighting for Life 177 

‘‘No, there isn't anything anybody can do — now," 
he said. 

The storm had had its way at last. The elements 
had won. With a rending of mighty timbers the 
tortured ship slid backward off the shoal and into 
the deep waters of the channel. 

“There she goes!" 

“That's the last of that vessel!" 

“I wonder if any of the folks on board got off 
safely." 

“I couldn't see — the spray almost blinds a fellow." 

Such were some of the remarks passed around 
as the ship on the shoal slipped slowly from view. 

The girls clung to each other in an agony of 
suspense. Never had they dreamed that they would 
witness such a dreadful catastrophe as was now 
unfolding before them. 

“Oh, Billie, this is dreadful!" groaned Laura, 
her face white with terror. 

“I can hardly bear to look at it," whimpered Vi. 
“Just think of those poor people! I am sure every 
one of them will be drowned." 

“Some of them must have gotten away in the 
small boats," answered Billie. 

“I didn’t see any of the boats," protested Connie. 
“But, of course, you can’t see much of anything in 
such a storm as this." 

“All we can do is to hope for the best,” said Billie 
soberly. 


178 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

“It’s the worst thing I ever heard of,” sighed 
Vi. “Why must we have such storms as this to tear 
such a big ship apart!” 

A groan went up from the watchers, and many 
of them turned away. They could not see the end. 

But the girls stared, fascinated, too dazed by the 
tragedy to turn their eyes away. 

The life-savers, who had almost reached the ship, 
backed off a little, knowing that they could not help 
the passengers now and fearful of being drawn 
under by the suction themselves. 

The great ship .hesitated a moment, trembled 
convulsively through all her frame, then her stem 
reared heavenward as though protesting against her 
fate, and slowly, majestically, she sank from view 
beneath tie swirling waters. 

Then the girls did turn their eyes away, and 
blindly, sobbingly, they stumbled back through the 
crowd toward the lighthouse. 

“Oh, Billie, Billie, they will all be drowned!” 
sobbed Laura. The tears were running down her 
face unchecked. “Oh, what shall we do ?” 

“If they could only have held on just a few min- 
utes more,” said Vi, white-faced, “the life-savers 
would then have had a chance to have taken them 
off.” 

“They may save some of them anyway,” said 
Billie, her voice sounding strange even to herself. 


Fighting for Life 179 

‘The life-savers will pick up anybody who manages 
to get free of the wreck, you know/’ 

“Yes; but Uncle Tom says that when a ship sinks 
like that it is hard to save anybody,” said Connie, 
twisting her handkerchief into a damp little ball. 
“Girls,” she said, turning upon them eyes that were 
wide with horror, “it makes me crazy to think of 
it. Out there, those people are drowning!” 

“Oh, don’t” cried Billie, pressing her hands to her 
ears. “I — I can’t stand it. Girls, I’ve got to walk 1 ” 
And Billie started off almost at a run along the 
beach, fighting her way against the wind. 

The other girls followed her, and for a while they 
ran along, not knowing whither they were going, 
or caring. All they wanted was to forget the horror 
of the thing they had seen. 

“What’s that?” 

Billie stepped back so quickly that she almost 
lost her footing in the slippery sand. 

“What do you mean, Billie ?” 

“That!” 

“Why, it — it looks like ” 

“Come on. Let’s find out.” And Billie ran to 
the thing that looked like a large piece of driftwood 
washed up on the sand by the heavy sea. 

And as she reached it she drew in her breath 
sharply and brushed a hand across her eyes to make 
sure she was not dreaming. On the thing that was 
not a piece of driftwood at all, but looked like a 


i8o Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

sort of crudely and hastily constructed raft, were 
lashed three small, unconscious little forms. 

‘^Girls, look!” she almost screamed above the 
shrill wind. “Do you see them, too?” 

“Why — why, they are children I” cried Laura. 
“Oh, Billie, do you suppose they’re alive?” 

“I don’t know,” said Billie, dropping to her knees 
beside the three pitiful little figures. Two of them 
were girls, twins evidently, and the third was a 
smaller child, a boy. Something in their baby atti- 
tudes, perhaps their very helplessness, stung Billie 
to sudden action. 

“Help me get them loose !” she cried to the other 
girls, who were still staring stupidly. “I don’t know 
whether they’re dead or not yet. But they will be if 
we don’t hurry. Oh, girls, stop staring and help 
me!” 

Then how they worked! The slippery wet rope 
that bound the little forms was knotted several 
times, and the girls thought they must scream with 
the nightmare of it before they got the last knot 
undone. 

“There! At last!” cried Billie, flinging the rope 
aside and trying to lift one of the little girls. She 
found it surprisingly easy, for the child was pitifully 
thin. She staggered to her feet, holding the little 
form tight to her. 

Laura and Vi each took one of the children and 
Connie offered to help whoever gave out first. Then 


Fighting for Life i8i 

they started back to the lighthouse. Luckily for 
them, the wind was at their backs, or they never 
could have made the trip back. 

When they reached the Point they found that 
most of the crowd had dispersed. Only a few 
stragglers remained to talk over the tragedy in 
awed and quiet whispers. 

These stared as the girls with their strange bur- 
dens fought their way toward the door of the light- 
house. Some even started forward as though to 
offer assistance, but the girls did not notice them. 

Through the window Billie could see Uncle Tom 
standing before his mantelpiece, head dropped 
wearily on his arm. Then Connie opened the door 
and they burst in upon him. 

*'Oh, Uncle Tom!’^ she gasped. “Please come 
here, quick!’' 


CHAPTER XXIV 


THREE SMALL SURVIVORS 

It did not take Uncle Tom very long, experienced 
as he was, to bring the three children back to con- 
sciousness. As it was, they had been more affected 
by the cold and the fright than anything else, for 
the raft, crude as it was, had kept them above the 
surface of the waves and saved their lives. 

As the girls bent over them eagerly, helping Uncle 
Tom as well as they could, the faint color came back 
to the pinched little faces, and slowly the children 
opened their eyes. 

‘^Oh, they are alive, bless ’em,” cried Billie, jump- 
ing to her feet. But the quick action seemed to 
terrify the children, and they cried out in alarm. 
In a minute Billie was back on her knees beside 
them, looking at them wonderingly. 

‘‘Why, what’s the matter?” she asked, putting out 
her hand to the little boy, who shrank away from 
her and raised an arm before his eyes. “Why, 
honey, did you really think Billie would hurt a nice 
little boy like you ?” 


182 


.Three Small Survivors 183 

But all three children had begun to cry, and Billie 
looked helplessly at her chums. 

Uncle Tom had spread a large rug on the floor 
and had laid the children on it while he worked over 
them. Up to this time he had been on his knees 
beside the girls, but now he got to his feet and 
looked down at them soberly. 

‘‘Somebody’s been mistreating ’em,” he said, his 
eyes on the three cowering, pathetic little figures. 
“Poor little x. hes — poor little mites! Found ’em 
on a sort of raft, you say? Washed up by the 
waves ?” 

The girls nodded, and Billie, putting a tender arm 
around the little fellow, succeeded in drawing him 
up close to her while Laura and Vi tried to do the 
same with the little girls. Connie was watching 
her Uncle Tom. 

“H’m,” said the latter, stroking his chin thought- 
fully. “Folks on the ship probably — drowned out 
there. Poor little waifs. Kind of up to us to take 
care of ’em, I reckon.” 

“Of course it is,” cried Connie, jumping to her 
feet. “Uncle Tom, where did Mother and Daddy 
go?" 

“On, toward the house,” said Uncle Tom, nod- 
ding his head in the direction of the bungalow. 
“When they couldn’t find you they got kind o’ 
worried and thought you must have made tracks 
for home.” 


184 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

‘'Here they come now,” cried Laura, for through 
the windows she had caught sight of Mr. and Mrs. 
Danvers hurrying along the walk toward the light- 
house. 

“Oh, Fm glad,” said Billie, hugging the little boy 
to her and smoothing his damp hair back from his 
forehead. The child had stopped crying and had 
snuggled close to Billie, lying very still like a little 
kitten who has found shelter and comfort in the 
midst of a wilderness. The soft little confiding 
warmth of him very suddenly made Billie want to 
cry. “Your mother will know what to do,” she 
said to Connie. 

“Mother always does,” said Connie confidently, 
and a minute later opened the door to admit two 
very much wind-blown, exhausted and very anxious 
parents. 

“Oh, kiddies, what a fright you gave us!” cried 
Connie’s mother, looking very pale and tired as she 
leaned against the door post while Mr. Danvers 
patted her hand gently and tried not to look too 
much relieved. “Where did you go ? Why, 

girls ” She stopped short in absolute amazement 

and bewilderment as she caught sight of Laura and 
Vi and Billie on the floor, each with a child clasped 
in her arms. “Where did you get them?” 

She did not wait for an answer. She flew across 
the room and, dropping to her knees, gazed at the 
children who at this new intrusion had started away 


Three Small Survivors 185 

from the girls and regarded her with wide, doubtful 
eyes. 

"'Why, you precious little scared babies, you!’^ 
she cried, pushing the girls away and gathering the 
children to her. ‘"I don’t know where you came 
from, but what you need is mothering. Where did 
they come from?” she asked, looking up at Uncle 
Tom. 

“From out there,” said Uncle Tom gravely, wav- 
ing his hand toward the spot where the ship had 
gone down. Then he quickly told her and Mr. Dan- 
vers what the girls had told him. They did not 
interrupt. Only, when he had finished, Mrs. Dan- 
vers was crying and not trying to hide it. 

"‘Oh, those poor, poor people !” she sobbed. “And 
these poor little frightened, miserable children all, 
all there is left. Oh, I’ll never get over the horror 
of it. Never, never! John,” she added, looking up 
at her husband with one of those quick changes of 
mood that the girls had learned to expect in her, 
"‘will you and Tom help me get the children home? 
They mustn’t be left like this in dripping clothes. 
They’ll catch their death of cold. What they need 
is a hot bath and something to eat, and then bed. 
Poor little sweethearts, they are just dropping for 
sleep.” 

So Uncle Tom took one of the little girls, Mr. 
Danvers another, and Connie’s mother insisted upon 
carrying the little boy. 


i86 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

“Why, he's nothing at all to carry," she said, 
when her husband protested. “Poor child — he’s only 
skin and bones." 

So the strange procession started for the bunga- 
low, the girls, tired out with nerve strain and excite- 
ment, bringing up the rear. But they did not know 
they were tired. The mystery of the three strange 
little waifs washed up to them by the sea had done 
a good deal to erase even the horror of the wreck. 

“And we haven’t the slightest idea in the world 
who they really are or whom they belong to," Con- 
nie was saying as they turned in at the walk. “It is 
a mystery, girls, a real mystery this time. And I 
don’t know how we’ll solve it." 

But they forgot the mystery for the time being 
in the pleasure of seeing the waifs bathed and 
wrapped in warm things from the girls’ wardrobes 
and fed as only Connie’s mother could feed such 
children. 

Gradually the fear died out of the children’s eyes, 
and once the little boy even reached over timidly 
and put a soft, warm hand in Billie’s. 

“You darling," she choked, bending over to kiss 
the little hand. “You’re not afraid of Billie now, 
are you ?" 

The little girls, who were twins and as like as two 
peas, were harder to win over. But by love and 
tenderness Connie’s mother and the girls managed 
it at last. 


Three Small Survivors 187 

And then eyes grew drowsy, tired little heads 
nodded, and Connie^s mother, with a look at Mr. 
Danvers, who had been hovering in the background 
all the time, picked up one of the little girls and 
started for the stairs. 

“Fm going to tuck them in bed,” she said, speak- 
ing softly. “We can put them in our room John — 
in the big bed.” 

A few minutes later the girls stood in Mrs. Dan- 
vers’ room, looking down at three little flushed 
faces, three tousled heads that belonged to three 
very sound-asleep little children. 

Connie’s mother tiptoed out of the room and 
motioned to the girls to follow, but they lingered 
for a minute. 

“Aren’t they lovely?” asked Connie, with a catch 
in her voice. 

“They’re beautiful,” said Laura. “Especially the 
little boy.” 

“And they ate,” said Vi softly, “as if they had 
been half starved. Poor little things — I wonder 
who they are ?” 

“Girls,” said Billie gravely, “I suppose you will 
laugh at me when I tell you, but ever since I first 
saw them I have had a strange feeling ” 

“Yes,” they said impatiently, as she paused. 

“That I have seen them somewhere before,” she 
finished, looking at them earnestly. “And now, as 
they lie there Fm almost sure of it.” 


i88 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

‘‘Seen them before?” repeated Connie, forgetting 
in her astonishment to lower her voice, so that the 
little boy stirred restlessly. Billie drew them out 
into the hall. 

“Come into our room,” she said; and they fol- 
lowed her in wondering silence. 

“I wish you would say that all over again, Bil- 
lie,” said Vi eagerly, when they had drawn their 
chairs up close to Billie. “You said you had seen 
them before?” 

“No, I said I thought I had seen them before,” 
said Billie, frowning with the effort to remember. 
“It seems foolish, I know ” 

“But, Billie, if you feel like that you must have 
some reason for it,” said Laura eagerly. 

There followed a silence during which Billie 
frowned some more and the girls watched her eager- 
ly. Then she disappointed them by suddenly jump- 
ing up and starting for the door. 

“Well,” she said, “I can’t remember now. Maybe 
I will when I’ve stopped trying to. Come on, Con- 
nie, let’s help your mother with the dishes.” 

But Billie did not find the answer for several 
days. Meanwhile they had received word from the 
boys that they had put into port the afternoon of 
the great storm and had not been able to go out 
again until a couple of days later. No news con- 
cerning the three waifs had come in. 

The boys had received news of the wrecked ship. 


Three Small Survivors 189 

of course, and were tremendously excited about it. 

“You girls have all the luck, anyway,’’ Chet wrote 
to Billie. “Just think — if we had stayed over a few 
hours we would have seen the wreck too.” 

Billie tore the letter up and flung it into the paper 
basket. 

“Luck!” she had murmured, her face suddenly 
grown white as she gazed out over the water that 
was brilliantly peaceful once more in the afternoon 
sunlight. “He calls that luck!” 

The boys had promised to return in a couple of 
weeks and give the girls a regular “ride in the motor 
boat.” If it had not been for the waifs who had 
so strangely been entrusted to them, the girls would 
have looked forward more eagerly to the return of 
the boys. 

As it was, they were too busy taking care of the 
sweet little girls and beautiful little boy and falling 
in love with them to think much of the boys one 
way or another except to be deeply thankful that 
they had escaped disaster in the storm. 

And then, when Billie had nearly forgotten that 
strange impression she had had in the beginning of 
having seen the children before, suddenly she re- 
membered. 

It was one night after the girls had gone to bed. 
They had been laughing over some of the cunning 
things the children had been doing, and Laura had 
been wondering how they would go about finding 


igo Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

the relatives of the children — if they had any — 
when suddenly Billie sat up in bed with a look of 
astonishment on her face. 

‘‘Girls/* she cried, “I know where I saw those 
children.’* ^ 

“Oh, where?** they cried, and then held their 
breath for her answer. 

“In Miss Arbuckle’s album !** 


CHAPTER XXy 


THE MYSTERY SOLVED 

For a moment there was silence in the two rooms 
while the girls let this sink in. Then Laura and Vi 
jumped out of bed, and, running into Connie^s 
room, fairly pounced upon Billie. 

They were all so excited that for a moment they 
could not speak. And then they all spoke at once. 

'‘Miss Arbuckle's album !’’ 

“Billie, you must be crazy!'’ 

“I never heard anything ” 

“Billie, are you sure?” 

These, and a dozen other wild questions like them 
fairly smothered poor Billie, and it was a long time 
before she could get a word in edgewise. 

“Please keep still a minute,” she cried at last. 
“You’re making so much noise you’ll wake the chil- 
dren.” 

“Goodness ! who cares about the children ?” cried 
Laura impatiently. “Billie, if you don’t say some- 
thing, I’ll scream.” 

“Well, give me a chance then,” retorted Billie. 
191 


192 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

“What did you mean by saying that you saw 
them in Miss Arbuckle’s album ?’^ asked Connie. 

Billie looked at her soberly and then said very 
quietly. “Just that!'' 

“But, Billie, when did this happen ?" cried Laura, 
fairly shaking her in her impatience. “For good- 
ness sake, tell us everything." 

“Why, I know!" Vi broke in excitedly. “Don't 
you remember what Billie said about Miss Arbuck- 
le's crying over the pictures of three children in 
the album " 

“And said," Connie took up the tale eagerly, “that 
she had lost her dear ones, but didn't want to lose 
their pictures too? Oh, Billie, now it is a mystery!" 

“But if you are sure these are the same children 
you saw in the album, Billie," said Laura, walking 
up and down the room excitedly, “you will have to 
do something about it." 

“Of course," said Billie, her eyes shining. “I'll 
write to Miss Arbuckle and tell her all about it. 
Oh, girls, I can't wait to see her face when she sees 
them. I’m sure it will make her happy again." 

They talked about Billie’s remarkable discovery 
late into the night, until finally sheer weariness 
forced them to go to bed. But in the morning they 
were up with the first ray of sunlight. 

They told Connie’s mother and father about it at 
the breakfast table, and before they got through the 


The Mystery Solved 193 

meal the two older people were almost as interested 
and excited as the girls. 

As soon as she could get away Billie flew upstairs 
to write her letter, leaving the others still at the 
table. The children had already had their breakfast 
— for like all children they woke up with the birds — 
and were out playing on the front porch. 

‘‘Why, I never heard anything like it !” said Con- 
nie’s mother to her equally astonished husband. “It 
seems like a fairy tale. But, oh, I do hope it is true 
— for the kiddies’ sake and for that of that poor 
Miss Arbuckle.” 

Again and again Mrs. Danvers had tried to ques- 
tion the children about their parents and where they 
lived, but the little things had seemed to be thrown 
into such terror at the very first questions and had 
refused so absolutely to say a word that might lead 
to the discovery of their relatives that she had been 
forced to give up in despair. Just the very night 
before Mr. Danvers had decided to go over to the 
mainland and put an advertisement in all the leading 
papers. 

“Although I rather dread to find their guardians,” 
he had confided to his wife that night, as they had 
stood looking down at the sweet little sleeping faces. 
“I’m falling in love with them. It’s like having 
Connie a baby all over again.” 

And Connie’s mother had patted his arm fondly 


194 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

and reached down to draw a cover up over one little 
bare arm. 

“I feel that way too/’ she had said softly. 

When Billie had finished her letter Mr. Danvers 
volunteered to take it over to the mainland for her 
and send it special delivery. 

“You won’t put the ad in the paper then, will 
you?” his wife asked as he started off. 

“No,” he said, stooping down to pat the little 
boy’s dark head. “I’ll give Billie a chance to clear 
up her mystery first.” And with a smile at Billie 
he swung off down the walk while with quickened 
hearts the. girls and Mrs. Danvers watched him go. 

Suddenly the little fellow got up from the hollow 
in the sand where he and his sisters had been mak- 
ing sand pies and ran up to Billie, waving his shovel 
excitedly. 

“Him goin’ ’way?” he asked, pointing down the 
beach toward Mr. Danvers. 

“Yes. But he’s coming back,” said Billie, catch- 
ing the little fellow up and kissing his soft rosy 
cheek. Then she looked at the girls and her eyes 
filled with tears. “Oh, girls,” she cried, “I don’t 
see how I’m going to give him up !” 

Then followed days of anxious waiting for the 
girls. Every night when the mail came in on the 
Mary Ann they were at the dock to meet it. But 
though they searched for a letter postmarked Mo- 


The Mystery Solved 195 

lata with eager eyes, day after day went by and still 
there was no word from Miss Arbuckle. 

This state of affairs continued for over a week 
until the girls had begun to give up in despair. And 
then one night it came — the letter they had been 
waiting for. 

They did not wait to get home, but sat down on 
the edge of the dock while Billie read it aloud. 

The letter was such a mixture of joy and hope 
and fear that sometimes the girls had hard work 
making anything out of it. However, this much 
was clear: Miss Arbuckle intended to leave Mo- 
lata Friday night — and this was Friday night — and 
would probably be at Lighthouse Island Saturday 
morning. And to-morrow was Saturday! 

'‘She says,” Billie finished, her voice trembling 
with excitement, "that the reason she didn’t write 
to us before was because she was out of town and 
didn’t receive my letter for almost a week after it 
reached Three Towers Hall. She says ” 

"Oh, who cares about that?” cried Laura im- 
patiently. "The main thing is that she will be here 
to-morrow.” 

"Only a little over twelve hours to wait.” 

The girls did not sleep very well that night, and 
they were up and dressed and at the dock almost an 
hour before the steamer was due. 

They were so nervous that they could not stand 
still, and it was just as well that the Mary Ami w^s 


196 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

a little early that morning, or the dock would have 
been worn out completely, Connie declared. 

“Oh, Billie, suppose she doesn’t come?” whis- 
pered Vi as the boat slid into the dock. “Sup- 


“No suppose about it,” Billie whispered back joy- 
fully. “Look, Vi! There she is.” 

“But who is the man with her?” cried Laura sud- 
denly, as Miss Arbuckle waved to them from the 
upper deck and then started down the narrow wind- 
ing stairway, followed by a tall, rather stoop-shoul-^ 
dered man who seemed to the girls to have something 
vaguely familiar about him. 

“He may not be with her,” Billie answered. But 
suddenly she gasped. Miss Arbuckle had stepped 
upon the dock with hands outstretched to the girls, 
and as the tall man followed her Billie got her first 
full look at his face. 

It was Hugo Billings, the mysterious maker of 
fern baskets whom they had found in his hut in 
the woods! 

As for the man, he seemed as much astonished 
as the girls, and he stood staring at them and they 
at him while Miss Arbuckle looked from one to 
the other in amazement. 

“What’s the matter?” she cried. “Hugo, have 
you met the girls before?” 

“Why, why yes,” stammered the man, a smile 
touching his lips. 


The Mystery Solved 197 

‘‘You see we were lost in the woods and he very 
kindly showed us the way out/’ said Billie, finding 
her voice at last. 

“Oh,” said Miss Arbuckle. 

Then she introduced her companion to the girls 
as “my brother” and once more the girls thought 
they must be losing their minds. But this time 
Miss Arbuckle did not seem to notice their bewilder- 
ment, for her whole mind was on the object that had 
brought her here. 

“The children?” she asked, her voice trembling 
with emotion. “Are they here?” 

“They are at my house. Miss Arbuckle,” said 
Connie, recovering from her bewilderment enough 
to realize that she was the hostess. “I suppose 
you’re crazy to see them.” 

“Oh yes! Oh yes!” cried the teacher. Then, as 
Connie led the way on toward the cottage, she 
turned to Billie eagerly. 

“Billie,” she said, “are you sure you recognized 
my children? If I should be disappointed now 
I — I think it would kill me. Tell me, what do they 
look like?” 

As Billie described the waifs Miss Arbuckle’s 
face grew brighter and brighter and the man whom 
the girls had called Hugo Billings leaned forward 
eagerly. 

“I guess there’s no mistake this time, Mary,” he 
said, and there was infinite relief in his tone. 


198 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

When they reached the cottage the children were 
playing in the sand as usual, and the girls drew 
back, leaving Miss Arbuckle and her brother to go 
on alone. 

Miss Arbuckle had, grown very white, and she 
reached out a hand to her brother for support. Then 
s1ie leaned forward and called very softly: “Davy. 
Davy, dear.’^ 

The children stopped playing and stared up at 
the visitors. But it was the little fellow who recog- 
nized them first. 

“Mary! My Mary!” he cried in his baby voice, 
and ran as fast as his little legs could carry him 
straight into Miss Arbuckle’s arms. Then the little 
girls ran to her, and Miss Arbuckle dropped down 
in the sand and hugged them and kissed them and 
cried over them. 

“Oh, my children ! My darling, darling children !” 
she cried over and over again, while the man stood 
looking down at them with such a look of utter 
happiness on his face that the girls turned away. 

“Come on,” whispered Billie, and they slipped 
past the two and into the house. 

Connie’s mother and father were in the library, 
and when the girls told them what had happened 
they hurried out to greet the newcomers, leaving 
the chums alone. 

“Well, now,” said Laura, sinking down on the 


The Mystery Solved 199 

couch and looking up at them, ‘‘what do you think 
of that?^’ 

so dazed, I don’t know what to think of it,” 
said Billie, adding, with a funny little laugh: “The 
only thing we do know is that everybody’s happy.” 

“Talk about mysteries ” Connie was begin- 

ning when Connie’s mother and Miss Arbuckle came 
in with the clamoring, excited children. And to say 
that Miss Arbuckle’s face was radiant would not 
have been describing it at all. 

“Oh girls, girls!” she cried, looking around at 
them, while her eyes filled with tears, “do you know 
what you’ve done for me — do you? But of course 
you don’t,” she answered herself, sitting down on 
the couch while the children climbed up and 
snuggled against her. “And that’s what I want to 
tell you.” 

“Ob, but not now,” protested Connie’s mother. 
“I want to get you a cup of tea first.” 

“Oh, please let me tell the girls now. I want 
to,” begged Miss Arbuckle, and Connie’s mother 
gave in. 

“You see,” the teacher began while the girls 
gathered around eagerly, “only a few months ago 
Hugo — my brother — and I were very happy. That 
was before the dreadful thing happened that 
changed everything for us. I was nurse and gov- 
erness,” she hugged the children to her and they 
gazed up at her fondly, “to these children at the 


200 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

same house where Hugo was head gardener. Our 
employers were very wealthy people, and, having 
too many social duties to care for their children, 
Hugo and L sort of took the place of their father 
and mother. Indeed we loved them as if they be- 
longed to us.^’ 

She paused a moment, and the girls stirred im- 
patiently. 

“Then the terrible thing happened,'’ she con- 
tinued. “One night the children disappeared. I 
had put them to bed as usual, and in the morning 
when I went in to them they were gone." 

“Oh !’’ cried the girls. 

“But that wasn’t enough — Hugo and I weren’t 
sorrow-stricken enough,’’ she went on, a trace of 
bitterness creeping into her voice. “But they — 
Mr. and Mrs. Beltz — must accuse us — us — of a plot 
to kidnap the children. They accused us openly, 
and Hugo and I, being afraid they had enough cir- 
cumstantial evidence to convict us, innocent though 
we were, fled from the house. 

“That’s about all,’’ she said, with a sigh. “Hugo 
built himself a little refuge in the woods and made 
fern baskets, selling enough to make him a scanty 
living, and I went as a teacher and house matron 
to Three Towers Hall. That is why,’’ she turned 
to Billie, who was staring at her fascinated, “I was 
so desperate when I lost the album, and why,’’ she 


The Mystery Solved 201 

added, with a smile, “I acted so foolishly when you 
returned it/' 

“You weren’t foolish,” said Billie. “I think you 
were awfully brave. I understand everything now.” 

“But I don’t — not quite,” put in Connie’s mother, 
her pretty forehead puckered thoughtfully. “Of 
course you didn’t kidnap the children,” turning to 
Miss Arbuckle, “but it is equally certain that some- 
body must have done it.” 

“Oh, but don’t you see?” Connie broke in eagerly. 
“The kidnappers, whoever they were, must have 
gone down on the ship out there on the shoal.” 

“And they bound the children on that funny raft 
and set them adrift, probably thinking they would 
be able to get away themselves,” added Vi eagerly. 

“And then the ship went down before they could 
follow,” said Billie, adding, as she turned earnestly 
to the teacher : “Oh, Miss Arbuckle, it was awful — ■ 
that poor ship out there going down with all the 
people on board !” 

“Yes, it must have been horrible. I read about 
it in the papers,” nodded Miss Arbuckle soberly. 
Then a great light broke over her face as she looked 
down at the three children who were still not much 
more than babies. “But some good comes of almost 
everything. I have my precious children now, and 
I can take them back to their family and prove my 
innocence — and Hugo’s. Oh I’m so happy — I’m 
so happy!” 


202 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

‘'But won’t you come back to Three Towers any 
more?” asked Laura, her face so long that Miss 
Arbuckle laughed delightedly. 

“Yes, my dear,” she said, a joyful light in her 
eyes that made her quite a different person. “Hugo 
will probably go back to his old position, but I — oh, 
I could not desert Three Towers now after all you 
girls have done for me.” 

Then Connie’s mother had her way and whisked 
joyful Miss Arbuckle away upstairs to “take off her 
hat” while the children trailed after, leaving the 
girls alone. 

Laura and Connie and Vi fairly hugged each 
other over the marvelous clearing up of their mys- 
tery, but Billie turned away and looked out of the 
window, while sudden tears stung her eyes. 

She did not notice that the little boy whom Miss 
Arbuckle had called Davy stopped at the foot of the 
stairs and crept softly back to her, she did not know 
he was anywhere around, till a soft little hand was 
slipped into hers and a baby voice said plaintively : 

“Me loves my Billie, too.” 

“You darling!” cried Billie, kneeling down and 
catching him close to her. “I suppose they will 
take you away now where you belong, honey, but 
don’t ever forget your Billie.” 

And when the girls went over to her a few min- 
utes later they were surprised to find that her eyes 
were wet. 


The Mystery Solved 203 

‘‘Why, Billie, you’ve been crying!” Laura ex- 
claimed. “And you ought to be as happy as the 
rest of us.” 

“I am,” said Billie, wiping her eyes hard. “Only 
I was thinking of little Davy.” 

“Well, don’t, if it makes you cry and gets your 
nose all red,” scolded Connie. 

“Never mind, honey,” said Vi, putting an arm 
about her. “We are all sorry to see the kiddies go, 
of course. But we can see them again some time 
if we want to.” 

“And just think,” added Laura happily, “the boys 
are coming back next week. And that means Teddy, 
too,” she added slyly. 

“Yes, I’m glad he — they are coming,” stammered 
Billie, and the others laughed at her confusion. 
Then suddenly she wiped away the last trace of 
her tears and her eyes began to shine, making her 
look like the Billie the girls knew and loved best. 
“We will have some good times when the boys come, 
girls. Why,” as if making a surprising discovery, 
“our fun has just begun!” 

And that Billie was speaking the truth and that 
there were more adventures in store for the boys 
and girls than even the girls dreamed of on that 
beautiful summer day, will be shown in the next 
volume of the series. 

In the due course of time the three Beltz children 
were restored to their parents. It was learned that 


204 Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island 

they had been kidnapped by three men who had 
thought to make a large sum of money out of their 
scoundrelly game. But all three kidnappers had 
lost their lives in the wreck. 

At first it was supposed that many had gone down 
in the foundering of the Daniel Boley, as the ship 
was named. But later on it was learned that three 
small boats had got away in safety and the sur- 
vivors had been picked up by a vessel bound for 
Halifax. So the loss of life was, after all, small. 

Mr. and Mrs. Beltz were heartily ashamed of 
having suspected Miss Arbuckle and her brother of 
wrong doing, and they offered both their positions 
back at increased salaries. Hugo returned to the 
Beltz estate, but not so his sister. 

love the children very, very much,’’ said Miss 
Arbuckle. “But I also love Three Towers Hall and 
the girls there. I shall remain at the school.” And 
she did, much to the delight of Billie and her chums. 

And now the sun shining brightly once more and 
happiness all around them, let us say good-bye to 
Billie and the other girls on Lighthouse Island. 


THE END 


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